


Earth 33: Outlaws

by JayEclipse



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempted Murder, Bisexual Jason Todd, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Trauma, Danny Chase Is A Ghost, Implied Jason Todd/Eddie Bloomberg, Implied Jason Todd/Rose Wilson, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Jason Todd Has Issues, Nightmares Part 2: The Foreshadowing, Other, POV Alternating, Road Trips, Rose Is Protective Of Emiko, Rose Wilson Has So Much Bullshit Ahead Of Her, Shado's A+ Parenting, Slade Wilson's A+ Parenting, Smoking, Team Bonding, Trauma, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-01-16 15:29:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 33,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayEclipse/pseuds/JayEclipse
Summary: After being exiled from Gotham for a crime he didn’t commit, Jason Todd finds himself forming a team, The Outlaws! His first recruits being his former pen pal, and a former sidekick, Eddie Bloomberg. And Rose Wilson, new to both of them but quick to prove herself helpful and a perfect fit for the team.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my NaNoWriMo project this year! The beginning of my rewrite of the DC universe. I'm starting off with The Outlaws as I'm pretty familiar with them plus I feel I can do some interesting stuff here.
> 
> If you want to see more from this verse check out my page and take a look at my two series labeled Earth 33: Outlaws. One has bios for all the major characters and the other has a couple of short fics set before this fan fic
> 
> Also warning that posting might get a little periodic past the 14th as I'm moving.

Jason was no stranger to being told off, teachers, cops, and family all had done it. And today’s attempt at reining him in was brought to him by Batman Aka Bruce Wayne, his father, former mentor, and current… something? He wasn’t exactly sure what to classify them as due to all the fights they had and the distance kept, but he know they were each important to the other.

“You’re to leave Gotham.” The tone of his voice wasn’t one to question. It was the one he used on crooks he wanted to obey him or when felt one of his children had crossed a line.

Expect no line had been crossed. “I’m to what?”

“Leave the city, and don’t come back until I tell you that you can come back.”

He scoffed and crossed his arms, giving a pointed look at his father. “You’re really kicking me out of Gotham, my home?”

“You went to far, we don’t kill Jason. Until you get that lesson though your skull you’re not welcome in this city.”

He begun to gesture, and to say “I didn’t even-” but dammit, he knew Bruce wouldn’t care what he’d say. He didn’t a few hours ago, so what would even be different? He’d always be the killer, the liar, the failure in Bruce’s mind. There was no changing that. He crossed his arms again, and looked off to the side. “So how long do I have to pack?”

“A day.”

“Then I’d better get busy.” Jason turned on his heel and walked away, from his father, and in a figurative sense Gotham. He wouldn’t dare look back, he didn’t need to see Bruce’s judgement, he already knew it’d scream guilty, no chance at parole.

* * *

  
  


He’d been down this road before, and he didn’t mean that in the ‘I’ve been kicked out of my own home with no family and nowhere to go’ sense, but in a literal ‘I’ve driven down this road before.’ Though to be fair it had been under… Kinda similar circumstances. He had left Gotham willingly, not wanting to get caught up in the hurricane that came in absence of Bruce. And wanting to get some space from all that bullshit in general. 

And LA had been good to him, good to Red Hood. There was a need for someone like him there. And maybe it was the sunlight, or maybe it was something else but he had started to feel just a little bit better there. Maybe that was due to Eddie, his old friend who had been shockingly accepting of what had happened, the type of person Jason had became. He had pushed Jason to be better, and maybe a little nicer if he could. But he didn’t really judge, that could have just been cause he had been grieving at the time. And Eddie understood grief, for such a happy person he had been through his fair share of it.

He was packed light for LA. He only had a motorcycle to carry himself and his belongings. Luckily he had managed to get a sidecar using Bruce’s credit card. So he had a backpack for his day to day essentials, a change of clothes, toothbrush, deodorant, that sort of stuff. And then in the sidecar was a duffel bag, one that would be real hard to explain to a cop if he got pulled over. It had his costume, his guns, his gear. And all of that was fairly bulky, and he didn’t even bring it all. He left most of his deadly ammo at home and laughed off the idea of bring any guns larger than a handgun. The rest of the space in the sidecar was being used for what he needed to keep his cycle going. If he broke down he didn’t want to be forced to leave a paper trail of a mechanic if he could help it.

In not much time at all he found himself at the city limits and remembering just how bad LA traffic was. It’d take him all day to get to Eddie’s, wouldn’t it?

* * *

The sunset over LA was beautiful, at least he assumed it was but most of it was being blocked by apartments. He was almost tempted to go up on to one of the roofs and take a better look, but he needed to stay focused. There was a reason he was there after all. He needed to see if Eddie would be interested in helping him. His plan was to just stay on the road and help where he could, he was sure word was already around in the hero community that he’d went back to killing (Even though he hadn’t) and due to that he didn’t feel like he’d be welcome anywhere long. He he had kinda gotten used to having some backup, or at least being able to call up Babs for some basic information. So there he was.

He knocked on the thin wooden door with his knuckles. And then found himself waiting for a minute. He had given Eddie a heads up that he was coming, but he had given a rough estimate of when he’d get there since he didn’t know what traffic or weather was going to be like. So it could be that Eddie was out cause he thought Jason would get there tomorrow. 

He rocked back and forth on his feet for a moment. Then looked down each end of the hallway he was standing in. Same off cream colored carpet that was sure to be scratchy throughout, same thin wooden doors, a few people had stickers on their doors, and down one end there was a fake potted plant. Poison Ivy would weep if she could see this, not a real plant in sight, just a fake mockery of one.

Then, suddenly, snapping him out of wondering what Poison Ivy was doing and then getting homesick for Gotham (Never thought he’d be feeling that), the door opened. So Eddie had probably just had something in his hand or been busy for a minute. He grinned at Jason. “Hey!”

Jason waved, a small smile on his face. “Sup?”

He shrugged. “Honestly not much.” He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment then stepped closer to Jason and gave him a hug. “You know, you could stand to visit more often. The sun would do ya a little good.” He chuckled.

Jason let out a small laugh, “Yeah maybe it would.” The hug ended and Eddie yet again was in the doorway. Jason titled his head. “So can I come in or are we just gonna have this whole conversation out in the hallway?”

Eddie took a step back and waved Jason forward. “Come on in! I don’t think I’d want my neighbors hearing this conversation would I?”

He shook his head. “Probably not.”

Eddie’s apartment was still small, still had a small table near the entrance to the kitchen with three chairs around it, same old red couch across from a TV with a stand full of DVDs and a couple Blue Rays of movies Eddie really cared about, same light fixture that was missing the cover making it clear that the roof was stained. But what had changed from when Jason had last been there a little over a year ago, was how messy it was. Despite how Eddie could come off, his spaces were usually fairly clean. He might have picked that up from helping tidy up trailers back when he was a gopher. But right now, well there were three pizza boxes on the table, two hoodies and a pair of sweatpants left on the sofa, and a couple cans of soda just randomly left around.

“Sorry the place is a little messy right now. I, uh… Had a couple friends over yesterday.” Eddie rubbed his neck again and glanced off to the side.

Jason raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t exactly sure what sort of hangout with friends left a pair of sweatpants on the couch. But if Eddie didn’t want to talk about the real reason why the place was cluttered then Jason wasn’t about to press on it. He grabbed one of the hoodies and hung it on the back of the seat before sitting down. Eddie sat down next to him, leaning on the arm rest. 

“Yeah no worries, if you think this is messy then you should just see my apartment.” He might not be living there at the moment, hell he wasn’t allowed in the freaking city, but that place was still his. Mostly cause he was still paying the rent. “You could be convinced the place belongs to a college student who’s idea of rest is staying up till 4AM partying.”

Eddie chuckled. “Yeesh Jason, I would have thought you’d pick up some cleaning skills from Alfred.”

He shook his head. “Nah, if anything that didn’t really help. All I had to do was keep my room clean and that was it.”

He leaned forward and lightly punched Jason’s shoulder. “Lucky.”

He then leaned back again and hummed for a second before asking. “You what brought you here?” He titled his head, with an almost teasing smile on his face. “Wanted to see me?”

“Well yeah, course I did…”

“But?”

“I also came to ask you something.”

Eddie perked up a little. “Hmm, what?”

Jason crossed his hands together and leaned forward, his knees were just up against the cheap coffee table. “I want to work together.”

Jason glanced over at Eddie who looked puzzled. “Why? I thought the batfam had you covered there, did something happen?”

He sighed. “I got exiled or whatever from the city.”

“They can do that?”

He scoffed. “Bruce thinks he can do anything, and I don’t want to fight him. He’d win and I’d just come out of it looking like even more of an ass than I already do. I’m kinda surprised you haven’t already heard about it, I’m sure Bruce has gone around letting everyone know what happened.”

It was now Eddie’s turn to sigh. “I… I haven’t really been keeping up with superhero stuff.”

“Really?” He knew that superhero work made Eddie happy, the guy forced Blue Devil into letting him be a sidekick cause of that reason. So it was… surprising that he’d been staying out of it. He knew something had happened with the Teen Titans while Eddie was working with them, maybe that had to do with it.

He rubbed the side of his neck and looked off to the side. “Yeah.. I’ve been focusing on my film career. I got a job with some indie guys who could use someone with my skill set.”

“And how’s that going?”

“Ermm, we haven’t really got much done. There’s been some fighting over the schedule and and the producer and director are fighting for control so-” He shrugged. “-Just another day in rookie film making.”

“That… That doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”

“Hey, it’s show biz. It’s not all glitz and glamour.”

“I mean what is?”

“Uh, pretty sure the answer is nothing?”

He nodded.

“So what even happened anyways? It had to have been bad if you got kicked out of a whole city for it.”

“Welll, Bruce thinks I murdered a League of Shadows agent named Twilight by pushing him off a building.”

Eddie’s eyes went wide and his mouth hung a little open. “Did-”

“Did I do it?”

Eddie nodded.

“No, fuck no. I… It was an accident, he lost his footing and he fell, the bastard had the gall to do that right while we were fighting. And guess who had just gotten close enough to see the fight but not close enough to see that I didn’t push him.”

“Batman?”

“Yeah Batman. Who then just assumed that I did it…” The frustration in his voice died out. “I can’t really blame him… If I were in his shoes I’d think I did it too. But it still fucking sucks.”

The look Eddie was giving Jason was… actually pretty hard to read. But he could tell that he was worried. He then shook the look off of his face. “Yeah that does suck. He won’t listen to you?”

He shook his head.

“Would anyone else?” The look was creeping back on to his face.

“Not really, maybe Kate and her sub-group would be I’m not about to get those guys back on Bruce’s burn book. They’ve got their own problems.”

“Oh.” Eddie leaned forward and patted Jason’s shoulder.

“I’m fine, really. Just a bump in the road, that’s it.” He wasn’t going to let this get to him, that’d be… that’d be weak. He could handle being away from home, and it wasn’t like this was the first time the family had kicked him out.

“Okay, if you say so.” Eddie’s hand trailed off to his lap, he was now sitting next to Jason. A side glance revealing that Eddie was looking at him. “But hey, if you need some comforting about this bump, let me know.” There was a soft smile on Eddie’s face.

“Sure.” He wasn’t actually planning on doing that, again, this wasn’t going to get to him. But the offer, well it put a small smile on his face.

“So back to business.” Jason leaned back and toyed with the white part of his hair.

“Yeah right, we were talking about you wanting my help. I almost forgot.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, so where I was going with that is I’m gonna be traveling around helping where I can while I’m not allowed in Gotham. And I’d love someone to back me up, maybe help with my gear?” Eddie was shockingly good with engineering, the guy managed to figure out how to make his own costume when he was like, 11. Sure he had basic blueprints but he had to size them down, and making stuff smaller could be real tricky.

Eddie perked up again, a grin on his face. “Sure! I’d love to help!”

“Wait you’ll agree that easily?” Jason was taken aback. He was expecting having to try and convince Eddie to help, he even had a whole speech prepped and ready to go, but… well it didn’t look like that would be needed.

“I mean why not? I don’t really got anything better to do. Besides! I’d love to help if I can! And engineering I can definitely do.”

“What about the whole indie film making thing?”

“I’m pretty sure the only reason they haven’t fired me is cause they can’t find anyone else with my skills that would be willing to get paid so little.” He said, still smiling.

“”Yikes, is that normal for you?”

Eddie took a breath. “Wellll, I do have a habit of getting fired off of sets. The only place that didn’t was Zach’s show and that wasn’t exactly film, and I’m pretty sure he demanded I didn’t get fired.”

Jason patted Eddie’s shoulder. “It’s okay, I just got keep trying at it. One of these days a job will stick.” There was disappointment in his voice but if someone just looked at his face they wouldn’t be able to tell that. He noticed this last time he had been around Eddie too, the guy wasn’t all that great at facial expressions, and had the habit of smiling at inappropriate times. “But it’d be a good idea to get a little space from it, ya know?”

“Yeah I get that. A little space is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.” Or in Jason’s case at the moment had forcibly injected in despite protest.

“So forewarning I don’t know a lot about guns so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do much on those.” 

“That’s fine, I’ve already got that covered.” He had learned plenty well how to handle and modify a gun and it’s ammo, Gra- He had learned that while he was with the League of Shadows. And boy did it come in handy, at least when he wasn’t using rubber bullets.

“So, is there anything else I’m going to be expected to do? Or is it just gear?”

“There’s two things, firstly I was hoping you could act as ground control, like keep an eye on traffic and police scanners while I’m in the field. You’ve got practice in that from the Teen Titans so I’m sure you’ve got that covered, right?”

He glanced off for a moment, with yet another hard to read expression in his eyes. He made a small nod to himself and then turned to back him and nodded. “Suurree I can do that.”

“Great, thanks.” He smiled at Eddie and then continued. “Then I was sorta hoping you have a ride? Cause right now all I’ve got is my cycle and while it’s great, it can’t fit a whole load.”

Eddie put his thumb to his lips and thought for a second before pulling his hand back in a eureka gesture. “I’ve got just the thing! It’s an old RV Marla used to use when she was scouting out locations for a couple days.”

“That should work. Thanks a million.”

Eddie held his fist out. “So, teammates?”

Jason fist bumped him. “Teammates.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this baby done the same day as the first chapter, woo me!

It was the night after Jason had shown up at his apartment. There some things in LA that Eddie had to wrap up before leaving, like telling those indie guys that he was quitting. He couldn’t say he was looking forward to that in the slightest. Besides, the RV was going to need some work, he had left it sitting in old parking lot of Marla’s old film company. Nobody had the heart to tel l him to move it though he was well aware they’d love if he’d do that.

He and Jason had went to club, despite the fact that both of them were underage. But Jason had a fake ID and the bouncer wasn’t exactly vigilant at this club, she was new and looked underage herself despite the white hair. As long as someone kept their nose clean and didn’t obviously act like someone underage then she wouldn’t bother. He had let Jason go ahead of him, saying that he just needed to find something in the glove box of the beat up car he used to get around LA.

Frankly though he didn’t need to find anything. He just needed a bit of privacy. He adjusted the rearview mirror of the car so he could look Danny in the eyes, although the light from the streetlights reflected off of his glasses making it kinda hard to do that.

“You need to stop talking while Jason’s around. I’m gonna slip and reply and then what am I supposed to do? Look bonkers?”

He tilted his head. “You could just explain what’s going on?”

He replies gesturing with one hand and keeping the other one on the wheel. “Oh yeah sure, ‘hey Jason I know you just came by and have your own massive problems but just by the by I’m being haunted by the ghost of one of the Teen Titans, just thought you should know.” His head sinks on to the wheel, missing the horn.

Out of the corner of his eye he can see on the mirror Danny crossing his arms. “You don’t have to put it like that. Just say something happened and you getting followed by a ghost. You don’t even have to explain it’s me.”

Eddie threw his hands up. “I’ve got no idea how to tell him that! Besides if he’s talked to Tim about what happened… Well he’d probably be able to put it together, his dad is called the worlds best detective for pete’s sake!”

“You’re panicking over nothing. Eddie, just calm the hell down. Do you think he’s going to freakout over just the fact that your being haunted? The guy came back from the  _ dead _ , I don’t think this would phase him much.”

Eddie pulled himself up from the wheel and looks ahead through the windshield. Seeing the club off to the side where inside was Jason probably wondering what was taking him so long. “Look, just be quiet while I’m around people, kay? You can do that, right?”

He glanced up at the mirror and saw Danny shrug. “I’m not going to make any promises.”

He sighed then started to get out of the car. That would just have to do, there wasn’t much he could do to try and keep Danny under control. The guy just kinda did whatever he wanted to. No regard for what anyone else wanted or said, thankfully he was usually trying to help. That was true both when he was alive, and now.

“You’re being selfish.”

Eddie stopped in his tracks and turned to face Danny. From the angle he was at now it was a lot easier to see Danny’s eyes, which were giving him a pointed look.

“What?” He had guesses what Danny could be talking about, but they were only guesses.

“You’re being selfish. Your running off from LA and going back to being a coordinator, even though last time wasn’t  _ exactly  _ peachy keen.” There was a taunting expression on his face. 

“I… What was I supposed to do? Turn Jason down when he clearly needs  _ someone  _ right now? The guy just got kicked out of house and home over an accident. He needs a friend and frankly, so could I.”

He shifted his head off to the side. “You could have turned down that part of the job.”

Eddie glanced down at the shitty carpeting of his car. “He would have asked why I wouldn’t do that part, I mean I did it for his brother, so it’d be weird if I wouldn’t for him. And I’m pretty sure that’s the main thing he wants me to do, he’s got to know how to handle his own gear and guns so probably doesn’t need me to do that.”

Danny’s gaze wouldn’t end but he wouldn’t speak up either. But deep down Eddie knew he was probably right, it was just so empty feeling to stay in LA living a mockery of what he wanted to do when he was younger. Working on films that would never release and working with people that hated him. Friendless and drifting day to day, at least with helping Jason there’d be some good company.

He got out of the car and headed for the entrance to the club.

  
  
  


“So what took you so long in there? I was starting to worry I got ditched.” He teased.

Eddie sat down at their small table near the entrance with his hands in his pockets. Jason already had a drink in front of him, so it looked like Eddie would have to be the designated driver. But really that was for the better, his car was for lack of a better term, unique. A person had to turn the key in just the right way or nothing would work, and there were other quirks as well.

“I lost my phone, turned out it had fallen in between the basket I keep between the seats and one of the seats.” He smiled and pulled out his phone and waved it around for a second before putting it back in his pocket.

Jason took a sip of his drink and while still holding the glass asked. “So did ya find what you were looking for?”

He shook his head. “Nope, but I guess I didn’t need it.”

They sat for a moment in silence, house music blaring in the background and the sound of chatter filling the air. The place wasn’t great, the management was cheap and half the toilets didn’t work on a bad day. But the drinks wouldn’t kill a person and a couple of them even tasted decent.

“So what’d you got there?” He pointed at Jason’s drink.

He half shrugged. “Well I asked for an old fashioned but somehow they fucked it up, so I’ll just call this a mystery.”

“Their beers are better by the way, it’s 100 to 1 for them to fuck that up.”

“You coulda mentioned that in the car.” He teased. 

“I forgot.”

“Hey you don’t have a drink.” Jason titled his head to the side.

“Didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer.” He had a small smile on his face.

“Aww, how sweet.” Jason teased, Eddie rolled his eyes. “So what do you want? Someone has to drive sooo, I’d recommend something not alcoholic.” 

“I wasn’t really planning for alcohol anyways. Just get me a soda, I don’t really care what kind.”

“Alright, gotca.” Jason got up from the table and headed over to the bar. He fit right in at a club, leather jacket, black jeans, and a bad attitude. Man he went straight from prep to punk, though he had to guess… dying would do that to a person. 

Speaking of death he nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed Danny had taken the last seat at the table and was just fiddling with his hair. He knew Danny could go through stuff but his head still had trouble wrapping itself around how he got on it since he couldn’t pull it out. He looked up at the very small yelp Eddie had made. “What? I’m being quiet aren’t I?”

Eddie kept his voice to a mummer. “I thought you were going to stay in the car!”

“Then you should have said that. I thought it was a free for all of where I could go. And thought maybe the club would be fun.”

“Has it?”

He shook his head. “Hell no. I can’t talk with anyone, I can’t order anything, I’d look soo stupid dancing, and this music’s giving me a headache.” 

“I… Sorry you’re having a bad time. Anything I could do?”

Danny thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Not right now.”

Eddie sighed. “I’m sure you wouldn’t look that bad dancing, besides I’m the only person that can see you and I’m not exactly about to judge.”

“You’ve got a-”

Jason got back over with a can of cola in hand, and a small grin on his face. He quickly looked back at the bar and then his gaze met Eddie’s. “I think the bartender’s into me.”

Eddie took his soda from Jason and cracked it open. “I hate to burst your bubble but I think they just do that so they get better tips. You sorta.. Erm, you sorta look like the type that would to[ extra for that.”

“You mean a fuckboy?” He lifted his glass with a small smirk on his face.

“Ehh, kinda… But like a non assholey one.”

“Non-assholely? I’ll have you know I’m quite the asshole.” He took a sip of his drink.

“You’re not an asshole Jason, just sometimes abrasive.” Eddie took a sip of his drink.”Besides, would an asshole go and offer to grab me a drink?”

“Well that’s not proof of anything, I like you. Course I’ll be nice to you.”

“Oh come onnn, you do plenty for people you don’t know.” He paused and took another sip of his drink. And then looked up back at Jason with a pointed expression. “You can drop the tough guy attitude. I’m sure it’s great for Gotham but your not in Gotham.”

He looked off to the side and sighed. Then took a large sip of his drink. The homesickness was clear on his face. And Eddie felt bad for him, but there wasn’t much he could do if Jason wasn’t going to talk about it. And he wasn’t going to, he didn’t talk about his dad’s death a year ago for pete’s sake, so why would he talk about this? 

Danny had his glasses pushed down to the bridge of his nose. “You are keeping stuff in too you realize? It’s not just Jay over there” He pointed his thumb at Jason who had just got his gaze back on Eddie. Apparently it was pretty obvious on his face what he had just been thinking about. At least to Danny.

“So when I was walking back over here it looked like you were talking with someone.” Jason swirled his glass like maybe that’d make the drink taste better, it wouldn’t. In fact it’d probably make it worse.

He shrugged. “I was kinda rambling to myself.”

“What about?”

“Nothing really… Just how bad the music is.”

Danny glared at him and then looked over at Jason, probably wondering if the boy could even sense another presence let alone see it.

Jason tilted his head to the side. “It’s pretty abmusal ain’t it?”

He nodded. “Can’t say house music is my favorite, but it beats most contrey.”

“Dolly Parton.” Jason gestured with one finger while holding his glass in the ‘I’ve got a point to make’ way before taking a sip.

“I said most, not all, Jay. But anyways I kinda learned to tune it out when I was helping at Zach’s shows. He liked to go clubbing and like… pick up ladies… But they were always playing house music and he actually likes the stuff so I couldn’t even complain that much.”

Jason chuckled. “Wow he’s kinda turned out to be a-”

“He’s not a douche, he’s just kinda… Emm, he’s coping.”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “From what? To many roses to the face?”

Eddie sighed. “It’s not really my place to talk about it. But he’s not a dick, he’s just kinda… Well maybe he’s a douche but he isn’t an asshole. There’s a difference.”

Jason took another sip of his drink. “Sure there is.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “Remember when he was just a nerd that was in over his head?”

He chuckled. “I’m pretty sure we were all nerds that were in over our heads, but yeah I remember that.” It felt like a lifetime ago, they were all so young, and happy, so so happy. Neive even. But that was youth wasn’t it?

“What’s he even up to? I haven’t heard anything.” 

Eddie took a sip of his drink. “He’s off touring right now, it seems like the only thing he’s been doing recently. Basically since he left the Teen Titans.”

“Guess he got bored? I mean if I had just left a superhero team for normal life I’d be pretty bored myself.”

“Yeah I guess so.” That was exactly what Eddie had done. And yeah, it was boring as shit. As much as he hated to admit it but once a person has seen the other side, the fact they could do more, it’s so hard to go back. He’s never understood how Zach could stand to do it, but they were different people.

“Oh wait shit, I wasn’t meaning to imp-”

He waved it off. “Your good, I know you weren’t trying to say anything.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Jason went and dumped the rest of his drink down a sink and Eddie finished his drink without the issues that the drinks at this place often gave. They were just having a half conversation when they both overheard someone talking to the bouncer. It looked like the girl came inside and switched out with the person that had been in the building when they had got there.

“Rosey I think someonne was tryin’ to get in ya carr.” The lady informing the bouncer of this was clearly shitfaced, shitfaced but very very nice. The bouncer quickly thanked her and then headed out.

Jason was getting up from his seat. “Why are we getting up?” Eddie asked.

“I just wanna keep an eye on that, I’m sure she’s got it cover but ya know, just in case that lady was lying some sort of trap I want to air on the safe side.”

Gotham made people paranoid but Eddie followed the slightly stumbling from alcohol Jason out of the bar. The LA heat was completely gone and replaced by a light chill. The moon shined down on the parking lot next to the club where Rose just scared off the guy that had been eyeing her car.

And there was across the street, a man eyeing Rose with a gun in his hand.

“Look out!”

*BANG*


	3. Chapter 3

She saw it before she heard it. But isn’t that how it always is. Gotta love precognition. Though seeing that she’d be shot in the head if she hadn’t just dropped though was frankly disconcerting. She pulled out the handgun she kept on her just in case of, well frankly she could think of plenty of reasons she’d need the thing like shit like this for an example. Though the idea of someone being sent to kill her hadn’t actually crossed her mind till two minutes ago when she realized that she was being set up.

She popped a shot at the guy who quickly ducked behind a car. A moment later she heard another shot fired at the attacker. She quickly glanced to her side and the drunk looking asshole in the jacket apparently had a gun on him too. How the fuck did she miss that when he came in? He’d have time to question her bouncer skills later.

She ran behind a car, two shots being fired at her as she got behind the blue painted steel. One of the two people that came out had also scrambled behind this car. He looked… Panicked to say the least.

“Are you alright?!”

She nodded. “Yeah just a saturday night.” That was a complete lie but it sounded cool and might calm the guy down a little.

Meanwhile his drunk friend seemed perfectly content to not join them behind the car and instead was crouched behind a fire hydrant and looked ready to live out a call of duty match like his wildest dreams. She had seen her fair share of nutjobs in LA but a guy willingly throwing himself in a gunfight for no reason was something worthy of giving pause, because no really, what the fuck?

“What the hell does your friend think he’s doing?”

“Um, helping?” The guy glanced over at his friend who was… wait where the fuck was he? “Oh I hate it when he does that.” Was the whole disappearing act often or?

Before for could dwell on that for any longer she got a glance at what could come to pass in just a moment. Her and the red head getting sneaked up on and having their heads banged together by another assailant.

Instead of letting that could happen she elbowed them in the face. And then turned to face them.

“Woah!” The red head scrambled backwards away from her and the masked assailant.

“You-” She punched them in the face. “-Don’t-” She tripped their legs out from under them. “-Get-” She was on top of them. “-The-” She punched them again. “-Drop-” And again. “-On-” She pulled off their mask to reveal a middle aged man she had never once seen in her life. “-Me!”

The man struggled against her and even got his hands around her troat. As she struggled to get his grasp off of her though the read head ran over and kicked him, hard, in the head knocking the wind out of him and knocking his hands off of her. The red head took a breath. “Looked like you needed a little help.” He paused for a moment before having some sort of eureka. “I’ll be right back!” He ran off to one of the cars, a beat up old thing, but judging by the fact he had the keys it was his.

She could hear shouting from across the street, most of it sounding more like screaming but she could make the drunk guy saying. “And this is why you don’t try to kill people you son of a bitch.” 

Her guy, the one under her still. Was still getting it back together from the red head, from the look of how he was doing that had been a real kick in the head. She snorted at her own internal pun, the guy looked far less amused and weakly tried to struggle again. But another punch, this one to his gut seemed to sap him of what willpower he had left.

She could hear footsteps behind her so she spared a glance only to see drunk jacket guy strolling over and lighting a cigarette. He glanced up from lighting it and met her eyes. She could swear there was something wrong with his eyes, that nearly neon green was not natural, and they almost seemed to give off just a tiny bit of light. It left an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

“Seems like you’ve got this covered.” He pointed at her and the guy under her with his free hand.

“Yeah, though that red head kicked him in the head which I’ve gotta admit helped.” 

“You mean Eddie?”

“I guess I do. I mean do see any other red heads around here?”

“I don’t even see him. Where did he wander off to?”

She shrugged. “Went off into a car. No idea why before you ask.”

He strolled a little closer and crouched down. “You’re a good fighter, who taught you?”

She rolled her eyes. “None of your business is who. What about you? You don’t exactly seem like a slouch, out of his mind sure but not half bad considering your drunk and don’t got a scratch on you.”

He chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told ya.”

“Try me.” She had a pretty weird past of training herself, a US special agent, her dad who just so happened to be a deadly mercenary, Nightwing and the Teen Titans in general, her brother. So not much would phase her, as long he didn’t say something like Batman or some crap.

He chuckled again and smirked at her. “Let’s just say it’s supposed to stay private.”

“Mysterious.” She glanced at him.

“I’m from Gotham, it’s in our nature.”

Eddie got back over with.. Were those a pair of handcuffs? Why on earth did he- Know what? She didn’t want to know actully. “Here! We can put these on him till the police get here.”

Jason stood up and grabbed the cuffs then went back down to help her put them on the guy. They then propped him against the wall. 

She leaned against it standing next to him with her arms crossed. “How quick do you think the cops will be here?”

The guy who she hadn’t actually gotten the name of yet stood next to her. “Well judging by the fact we just had a gun fight outside a club swat is gonna be here any minute. Eddie could you go get the car started?”

He was already going in that direction “On it!”

Drunk jacket guy tilted his head. “You need a ride or are you good?”

She sighed and thought about it for a moment. She couldn’t really afford an encounter with the law and she didn’t have a car, taxi and uber was her way around the city. She resigned herself and nodded.

“Alright then, let’s get going.”

He dropped his cig and stomped it out before they quickly got over to the car and piled in. It smelled like dust, car oil, and WD-40. She was stuck in the backseat with a backpack next to her and some random junk at her feet. Eddie already had the car started and the moment the doors had closed he was pulling out of the parking lot and heading eastwards.

“So question.”

“Huh.” Not actually all that drunk seeming jacket guy looked back at her.

“Who the hell are you people?! I don’t even know one of your names and I just got in a car with you!”

The guy made a small nod to himself before then extending his hand to her to shake. “Jason Todd, Gotham born and raised. I tend to jump into danger so early wasn’t just a one time fluke. You?”

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she had heard that name somewhere, but it didn't quite click yet. It was fair enough to ask, they had no idea who she was and had just let her into their car. “Rose Wilson. Club bouncer and consent questioner of why my life is like this.”

She could see in the rearview mirror Eddie’s eyes go slightly wide. “You were with the Teen Titans a while back weren’t you?” Jason turned to his friend with some confusion on his face.

“Why do you think that?” 

“I saw a file about you in the records while I was acting as ground control for Robin’s team.”

“Oh-” Wait a minute she had heard Jason’s name somewhere before! That was Dick’s dead younger brother! She pointed at him. “Your Dick’s brother?”

“You know Dick?” There was surprised in his eyes.

“Yeah course I do! He trained me four years ago!”

“Why I do I feel like the only person that understands what’s going on?” Eddie mused to himself.

“He did?”

“Yeah he did after my dad convinced him to.”

“Who’s you- Wait a minute did you say your last name is Wilson?”

“Yes I did-”

“Okay, how about I just explain who everyone is to each other? Cause I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on that.”

Rose leaned back in her chair. “Knock yourself out.”

“Okay, so Jason this is Rose. She was with the Teen Titans getting trained by Dick for a year before leaving for some reason that’s not on the records. She’s Deathstroke’s daughter and Jericho's sister-”

“And Grants?”

“Yeah and I guess Grants-”

“Why would that even matter? He’s missing and I’ve never met him.”

Jason sighed and looked ahead through the windshield. Which was really weird considering she could not think of a single reason he’d give half a shit about her missing half brother. 

“Anyways she’s skilled and also a part time babysitter according to record.”

“Really?”

“Yup, it pays well and since I was with the Titans for a bit superheroes trust me with their kids.”

“So Rose, this is Jason also know as Red Hood-”

“Hey!”

“She probably already knew.”

She nodded. “Yeah I did, Dick told me about that when you came back.” He sunk into his seat.

“So he’s usually a Gotham… hero but right now he’s doing a traveling hero thing and I’m gonna help him!” He had a grin on his face.

“What about you?”

“Huh?” He peered up at the rearview mirror to take a glance at her. She did a small wave. 

“I mean you’ve haven’t introduced yourself at all.”

He hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Whoops. Sorry about that! I’m Eddie Bloomberg! Formerly Kid Devil-”

“Kid Devil?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Blue Devil’s sidekick. But that was years ago. Recently I was helping the Teen Titans team before they disbanded and became Young Justice. And then I was doing some indie film stuff that wasn’t really working out. So now I’m helping Jason with his stuff.”

“Why didn’t you join Young Justice?” It seemed weird to go from superhero management to indie filmmaking. 

His eyes shifted and he paused for a moment before answering. “I didn’t get an invite.” He then glanced back up at the rearview mirror and looked at the space next to her.

“So any idea why someone would want you dead?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know. Probably my dead if I’ll be honest. It wouldn’t be the first time people have gone after me to get to him. Either way their persistent, this was their second try.”

“That’d make sense. If I wanted to get to Deathstroke I’d target his kids, but I’d also have a fucking death wish to do that. What happened first try?”

“They made it look like an attempted robbery but had full plans for it to go ‘wrong’ and for me to get shot in a ‘random’ act of violence.”

“Sneaky, but kinda weird. They must have done some research to know you’d fight back.”

“Or just saw that I’m a freaking bouncer, that might have been it too.”

He rested his chin on his hand. “Maybe. Something just isn’t sitting right with me.”

“Jason you’re being paranoid.” Eddie offered.

“There are literally people out there trying to kill her. I think any amount of caution or speculation is justified.”

“Hmm, fair enough. So Rose how are you doing anyways? I can’t imagine all that well considering, well you know.”

“I’ve been worse, way worse. But I can’t really say I’m doing great. People keep coming to try and kill me and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Jason glanced over at Eddie for a moment before glancing back at her. “Have you thought about running away?”

“No, why on earth would I think about doing that? I’ve got a job here and-”

“Your employer probably isn’t going to be thrilled that swat came by due to people coming after you.”

“Okay great. I’m probably out of a job, got people coming after me. And I don’t even have a fucking car. I couldn’t really runaway if I tried. Anything I could do would leave a paper trail.”

“We could help you.” Jason had a strangely gentle smile on his face for how he’s acted thus far.

Eddie perked up. “Oh yeah we could! We’re basically about to go on a roadtrip across the states plus even if someone did find us Jason’s a good fighter so could help fend them off.”

She sighed and gazed out the window watching builds pass by and people just going about their business with no worries of freaking assassins coming after them. “I’ll think about it.” Running off with Dick’s formerly dead and currently mentally unstable according to him brother and a random former sidekick frankly sounded like the beginning of a joke. But it offered safety in numbers, and a way to get out of the crosshairs for a bit.

“So where are we going anyways?” She asked

“I’m taking us to my house, is that okay?”

“Got a couch I can crash on?”

“Yup! Though Jason that means you're gonna have to share my bed with me.”

“Why the hell not? Warning I’m a restless sleeper.”

They continued through the night towards Eddie’s house. And Rose knew deep down that in the morning she’d been telling them that she was coming with. The lure of a way out of this problem was just too strong.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a quiet evening, the stars and moon gently shining down on the courtyard where he and Grant stood. Almost everyone else was heading to bed. But they thought it was a good time to squeeze in some practice. They each held a sword in hand and with a nod from Grant they started to circle each other.

“I know you were holding back last time Little Wing.” There was a smirk on Grant’s face.

Jason chuckled. “Didn’t think you could handle me at my best.” 

He frowned. “Ha ha, that wasn’t it. Don’t think you can lie to me.”

“It wasn’t?”

He shook his head. “Nope, you were scared. Scared of hurting me, scared of flying into a rage, scared of losing control.”

He tried to play it off with a laugh, like what Grant was suggesting was completely ridiculous. But he knew his eyes were telling a different story, one that matched what was going through his head. Because frankly Grant hit the nail on the head, and that made him wince. Nobody liked to be called out on their shit. But Jason especially didn’t like it, as it wasn’t just the other person he was trying to get to believe it, it was himself too. Fear wasn’t something he liked to admit, neither was a lack of control. He knew that if someone knew either about him they’d exploit it and use it against him.

He tilted his head, a smirk on his face. “Well, I’m not scared now.”

He rushed forward aiming to strike, to slash Grant across the chest. And any concern for his safety, for keeping the man that was filling in a void left standing. It faded in the promise of violence, of taking that man down and keeping him there. He didn’t know how it happened but for a second he could swear the sword went through Grant.

But then he found himself leaning over the edge of a building, the air still damp from the rain earlier. He was decked in full Red Hood gear and Grant was plummeting to his death. He pulled himself back from the edge, he couldn’t stand to watch it happen. He could feel how shaky his breath was and how wide his eyes were. A few tears dared to start to run down his face.

It was an accident, it wasn’t his fault, Grant slipped. So why did he feel so guilty? He wouldn’t even feel that bad if it had been anyone else from the League of Shadows, but Grant had filled in a spot that Jason had thought he needed at the time. Only in retrospect was it clear that Grant had been getting more out of it than Jason, and that he was filling in a void too. Jason had needed a big brother, and Grant had needed a little one.

The sound of crash into the ground was god awful. He winced as he heard it. Being able to imagine what sight would met anyone who dared look down at it. Broken bones and blood, so much blood. He looked down at his hands and he could see it, his hands were covered in it.

He could hear Bruce distantly shouting at him. “Jason! Jason! Jason what are you doing?”

He felt like he was being shaken and the voice only became louder, but shifted into Eddie’s. “Jason? Jason did you- did you fall asleep?”

His eyes fluttered open and he was in the overly warm shotgun seat of Eddie’s car, been shaken awake. Fuck he must of fallen asleep while they were stuck in traffic.

He swatted Eddie’s hand away. “I’m awake, I’m awake. Be happy I woke up slowly or you’d have a hand around your throat.”

He pulled his hand back and adjusted his baseball hat. “I always forget how jumpy you batboys can be.”

A voice spoke up from the back, sounding smug-ly interested. “Batboys?”

Oh yeah right, Rose… Grant’s sister. Who definitely hadn’t heard about what happened yet. Hell she might not since he died masked and the League definitely retrieve the body. Jesus Christ why did he end up in situations like this? This was such a Red Hood move. End up deciding to help the half sister of a guy he’s been framed for the death of while she also happened to be a former Titan and of course, because why not? This wasn’t bad enough, she got trained by his older brother, weirdly mirroring her older brother helping train him.

Eddie leaned into the space between his seat and Jason’s. “Yeah batboys, I thought it’d be better than Robin’s since from what I’ve heard the girl Robin was pretty different and just in case  _ he  _ ever gets a boy sidekick that doesn’t go by Robin.”

He kinda already had that, there were other members of the ‘family’ that were guys and even around Dick’s age. But Bruce never thought of them as children so he guessed they didn’t count. Even if one of them could probably really use the father figure.

“Anyways we’re here! So let me go show you two around the RV.” He climbed out of the car and everyone followed suit into the hot Californian sun.

The outside of the RV was less than impressive. It was old, faded from the sun, and the bottom bits were rusted. But it also looked like there’d be plenty of space for them and all their stuff. Both he and Rose were basically bringing along a gun safe’s worth of weapons and ammo. Plus he had gear packed too. He strolled over to the back and yup, there was a spot this bike could get put up on, though he was going to have to abandon the sidecar. He couldn’t say he was too broken up over it.

“Jason! Get over here! I’m gonna show you guys the inside and I can’t do that if you’re all the way back there!”

“Alright I’m coming!” He called back.

The doorway was a little snug for the three of them but by virtue of how tall Jason was and the couple inches Rose had over Eddie they were all able to see the inside which was, how to put it nicely? Very retro and- None of them could keep keep themselves from coughing as the large amount od dust hit their noses.

“Eddie, did your grandma own this thing?” Rose asked.

He shook his head. “No, my Aunt Marla did.”

She waved at the air in front of her face trying to get rid of the dust. “Why’s this thing so dusty?”

Eddie nearly accidentally hit her in the face as he went to rub his neck but she ducked out of the way. “Uh, well. After Marla died I sorta just left this here and haven’t been back in a couple years so I guess the dust built up? We’re gonna have to clean this place up after I make sure it’s working.”

“Did we bring cleaning supplies?” Jason asked.

“No but we can pick those up when we go back to my place so you can pick up your bike.”

He groaned. “I cannot say I’m looking forward to another round of Los Angeles traffic.”

Eddie gave him a sympathetic look. “No one does. But hey, it is what it is.”

He turned back around and took a step into his very dusty RV. Jason followed right behind with Rose tailing behind him. The place was sparely decorated but had all the essentials. A sink, mini fridge, and stove. A tiny bathroom to do private business in (AKA take a shit). A loft bed put in the space above where the driver and shotgun seats were. Two of those tables that could fold up to allow the seating to become bedding. And for good measure there was a mattress at the end of the RV.

“Alright so over here is the stove-” He lightly hit it and the light in it turned on, he hit it again and it flickered off. “-Uh, anyways. It’s stove top is propane so you can light it even if the car is off. But the oven is electric so if you wanna like, bake. The car is gonna have to be on.” He paused for a moment before hitting the stove again, the light flickered back to life. He crouched down to get a better look. “Is it just me or is this light on?”

Rose gave him a firm pat on the back. “Not just you buddy.”

He stroked his chin. “Weird… This shouldn’t be able to turn on unless the car is on..” He stood back up and shrugged before hitting it one last time and the light died again.

“Maybe the RV is haunted?” Jason offered.

Eddie looked at him. “Maybe… Or maybe something is wrong with this RV. It’s an old girl.”

Rose gave him a look, one of those slightly judging ones. “Please tell me you aren’t one of those people that treat their car like a person.”

“I’m not. Promise!” Eddie might not have been but Jason was. He couldn’t help but snicker to himself about the surprise Rose would have when that came out.

Eddie shuffled over two steps to the sink. “Okay so all the water in this comes from the same tank that’s gonna have to be refilled every so often. So don’t like, keep the sink on while your not using it, or take a 10 minute shower.”

They both nodded. Neither very interested but they understood that this was important. 

The rest of the tour was just about as informational and uninteresting. Eddie’s enthusiasm was definitely helpful in keeping them listening but it really could only do so much as he explained how the seats could become a bed. 

They were then back outside in the Cali sun. It almost hurt Jason’s eyes due to just how used to Gotham gloom he was. 

“Alright so I’ll take a look at it and tune up anything that needs to be. Change out the oil and put some cleaning fluid in it. Ya know, basic car stuff.” Eddie wandered off to the back of his car to grab what he’d need.

Meanwhile Jason and Rose found a shady spot to sit. If Eddie needed him he was still in earshot so he could just shout and Jason would be right there. Rose pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. She turned over to Jason, her two blue eyes reminded him of the eyes he had seen in his dream earlier. Though hers were smaller and had a glint behind them that Grant’s never had. “Hope you don’t mind- You alright?” She waved her hand in front of his face.

He pulled back snapping out of his.. Whatever that had been just a moment before. He waved the issue aside, “I’m fine, just was thinking.”

She raised an eyebrow. “While looking directly into my eyes?” She chuckled and smirked. “You can just say you were getting lost in my eyes, lover boy.”

His cheeks felt hotter than they did a second ago. Not out of flusteredness but more embarrassment. Her assuming that was why he was staring at her was definitely better than her assuming he was looking at her comparing her eyes to her dead brothers. But it still wasn’t ideal. He played it off with a chuckle. “Sure I was. They’re very… Blue.” He shrugged.

She tilted her head and took a puff of her smoke. “You didn’t mention that you’re a poet.” She teased, stifling laughter.

He rolled his head back and cocked a smile. “We Gotham boys have a way with words.”

“You sure do.”

* * *

They had left Rose with the RV so she could get herself better familiarized with it and go grab a couple things from a nearby convenience store. And so he and Jason could get a chance to talk about her with no risk of her overhearing. And they’d have plenty of time to do that thanks to the ever persistent traffic. There were so many things Eddie loved about Los Angeles but the traffic wasn’t one of them.

“So did you have any dream’s earlier when you fell asleep in traffic?” 

Jason rested his chin on his hand and stared out of the window like how a middle aged woman would as she thought about her upcoming divorce. So he definitely asked the wrong question. “Uh, guessing it wasn’t pleasant?”

He shook his head. “Not really. It was about the guy that died. Twilight.”

Eddie drummed his fingers on the wheel. “Did you know him well? You didn’t mention him when you have me that brief rundown of where you were before popping up as Red Hood.”

He turned to Eddie. “There was a lot I didn’t mention. And that’s probably for the best.”

Great, more cryptic stuff. He understood it was Jason’s trauma and therefore it was up to him how to deal with it and who to talk to about it but it kinda seemed like his plan was to only talk about it with family for the short periods of time where they weren’t fighting him or kicking him out and to just ignore it the rest of the time. And that didn’t really seem like a plan more than what a person does when their parents are Mormons and they aren’t.

He looked back out the window, at the sea of cars and the clear sky. “He was there when I first got brought back, hell he was actually the guy they sent to get the body. And he along with Taila filled in that space where my family should have been. He helped with my gun skills and we’d practice with each other.”

“I’m sorry.” He gave Jason a sympathetic glance.

“What?”

“You lost someone you cared about and now you’re getting blamed for his death. That’s gotta suck.”

He sighed. “We hadn’t really talked since I left the League. And the last time we talked, I’m pretty sure he hated me for leaving.”

“Sounds like he really drank the kool-aid.”

“More like he drowned in it. They took him in after he ran away from his abusive shithole father and they tricked him into thinking he had value there. And they stuck his head under and he didn’t have the will to fight back.”

“Yikes…” Eddie just kept his eyes on the road as the inched along closer to the turn off.

Jason leaned back in his chair and took a breath before breaking some news. “He was Rose’s brother.”

His eyes went wide and he turned to Jason before getting his eyes back on the road. “He’s what?!”

“His name was Grant Wilson, son of Slade Wilson. He was Rose’s half brother I’m guessing.”

He blinked a couple times. Out of all the people in Los Angeles, a city with nearly four million people. Of course they had agreed to help the one girl that was related to the guy that died in front of Jason. What were the odds?

“Do you… do you think she knows?”

He shook his head. “Probably not. He died in mask and the League would have retrieved his body pretty quickly.”

“Are you going to tell her? She deserves to know.”

Danny who had been in the back seat leaned forward into the space between him and Jason. He turned to Jason and nodded his head over at Eddie. “He’s right you know.”

Eddie swatted at him and he jumped back to his seat.

“I… I don’t know. She might think I did i-”

“She’ll definitely think you did it if you don’t tell her and she finds out some other way.”

He nodded to himself. “Yeah-” He sighed. “Just gotta prep myself for that conversation. And figure out how much to tell her.”

Eddie hummed for a moment. “As much as you feel comfortable telling. She’s probably never met him so you and the rest of his family are gonna be all she’s got of him.”

He sank back in his seat, clearly thinking.Eddie just had to hope he’d do the right thing here. Or he might end up having too.

* * *

It had took those two long enough to get back. And they couldn’t even use traffic as an excuse as she could have gotten back faster and one of them as far as she could tell was born and raised in Los Angeles. Not that she had asked. She was starting to get antsy to get out of the city and not even the iced tea she had got at the convince store was doing much for her nerves. So she groaned when Eddie had brought out the cleaning supplies and asked her to help while Jason got his bike on the RV.

He was wiping down the stove and oven and she was dusting. The silence in the room was getting to her. Not because she wasn’t one of those people that couldn’t stand not talking but because it made her anxious, quiet never meant good things in her life, so that’s what her head was hot wired for. 

“So how’d end up friends with a guy like Jason, you seem so nice and he’s…”

“An asshole?”

“I wasn’t gonna say that, but now I’m gonna ask if he is? Cause I haven’t known you people long enough to figure out if he’s just a snarky bad boy or a grade a asshole, avoid at all costs.”

“What’s your gut saying?” 

“My gut is telling me I shouldn’t have had that sushi while I was waiting for you guys.”

He laughed and looked over at her. “He’s troubled-”

She rolled her eyes. “Aren’t there always?”

He giggled. “Well yeah I guess. But he’s trying his best.”

She raised an eyebrow. “All Dick told me about him was that he was completely out of it. And dangerous, really dangerous.”

Eddie sighed. “He’s got a pretty complicated relationship with his family. I’m pretty sure most of them don’t even understand what they’re dealing with.”

“Do you?”

He shook his head. “I don’t, but I’m not going to pretend that I do. And I actually try to listen to what he’s willing to share.”

“Let me guess, he doesn’t really talk about his problems much?”

“Do you? Hell, I don’t really do that so I think that’s a pretty common problem for superheroes.”

She flinched at being called a superhero. She wasn’t, she was just a girl thrust into a life she didn’t ask for by her dad. And in that life she hadn’t acted like a hero.

“So how do you know him? You didn’t answer my question.”

“Sorry! We met when we were both kid sidekicks and then were pen pals.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Pen pals? Like over email?”

“Nope! We wrote pen and paper letters to each other. It was actually pretty fun.”

“Huh, that’s pretty old fashioned.”

They continued their idle chat and Rose continued to try and figure out what kind of people she even was about to embark on a road trip with. There wasn’t really a common thread so had to take it apart piece by piece. But frankly putting it together seemed impossible. Like maybe she’d be forced to live out a saying that she hated, and rarely had use for, she’d have to wait and see.


	5. Chapter 5

The travel from Los Angeles hadn’t been too bad. Sure the highway was a nightmare but wasn’t it always. And he was in good company, and in good company it was hard to be annoyed. Though Rose didn’t seem to have trouble complaining about how crowded the highway was. It got better though as the went up the coast. Jason had told him to head to Star City so there they were going.

And got too in a couple hours. The RV was parked in a parking garage on the second top floor. Which thankfully was mostly empty so it wasn’t too hard to maneuver the RV through it. They’d only be there for a few hours before he’d have to drive it over to a Walmart for the night. But the parking garage was closer to a few locations that Jason needed to scope out for the mission he and Rose would go out on tomorrow.

While he did that Eddie and Rose got a good chance to grab a couple more things the RV turned out to be needing that he had forgot to grab in Los Angeles. Notably, toilet paper. That had been rather embarrassing to find out. And pretty startling when Jason suddenly shouted about it when Eddie was driving.

After that they found themselves waiting in the RV for Jason to get back, the air had a chill and just as he got the door open they could hear it start to rain.

Rose had her hands in her hips. “Huh, thought I smelled rain in the air.”

He smiled. “Yeah, hopefully Jason isn’t too cranky when he gets back from getting rained on.”

She chuckled and then they both climbed into the warmth of the RV. Eddie unpacked the things they had picked up while she checked her phone and then rolled her eyes and pocketed it.

“What is it?” Eddie had noticed out of the corner of his eye that she looked annoyed.

She groaned. “My dad. I’ve got no idea why he wants to call me and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.”

There was a lump in his throat. Slade probably could have figured out what happened to Grant, and that’s probably why he’d be calling. But it wasn’t Eddie’s place yet to break the news to her about that. “How often does he call you?” Eddie avoided looking at her further, he was pretty sure the guilt in his eyes would give away that he knew something.

“Somehow both far too often for how much contact I like to keep with him, and not enough for a father to contact his daughter.”

He rubbed his neck and glanced over at her. “I get that. My birth parents weren’t really around much but that was probably for the best.”

“What happened to them?” The look on her face was probably the softest look he had seen on there thus far.

He let out a small chuckle. “They just sorta, abandoned me? Gave over any legal guardianship over to my aunt and left. I’m pretty sure they’re backpacking through europe right now.”

She raised an eyebrow and then shook it off. “Yeesh, that’s real sucky.”

“Yeah well it turned out for the best. Marla took great care of me and I’m glad I got to spend so much time around her.” Time he now treasured.

“I’m guessing she’s dead now?”

He sighed and nodded. “She’s been dead for about four years. An accident at a place she was scoping out for a new movie.” Killed in a freaking electrical explosion. What were the odds?

“Sorry to hear. Did she work on movies often?”

He nodded. “Yup, she even had her own film company. Ever heard of the Blue Devil movie?”

“Yeah, mostly cause it’s actor ended up a superhero- Wait a minute that’s who you were the sidekick to!”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I met him on the set. I was basically the kid that went and fetched stuff or did minor tasks. A gopher.”

“That’s… actually pretty cool. Have you met anyone else famous?”

He shared several stories of mostly b list celebs that he had met or heard second hand stories about. He felt like he rambled on too long but Rose seemed amused so it didn’t really matter. He was so engrossed in a story about a morning drunk celeb accidentally popping a champagne bottle cork into a waiter’s eye that he failed to notice a key thing till Rose lightly elbowed him.

“Eddie!”

He pulled back from her hit. “What?”

She pointed out the window that they were sitting next too. Hey were those ceiling lights always so flickering? Before he could quite process whether or not they had been they shut off completely and a crack of lightning roared through the air.

“Did the-”

“Power just go out?” Rose patted his shoulder. “Yup.”

He turned and pointed at the window that had the view of the way back down to street level. “Do you think the gate will be working?”

She shook her head. “It’s an electronic gate. Buddy I think we are stuck till they fix this.”

He sighed. Jay was not going to be happy about this interruption in the slightest. And frankly he wasn’t exactly thrilled either.

Danny rested his chin on his hand and looked over at Eddie from the table across him and Rose. “It’s just a power outage. You’ll live.” He paused and then laughed and his own accidental pun.

Eddie let out a groan and stared down at the table in front of him. He could feel Rose’s warm hand on his shoulder again.

“Yeah that sucks but hey, we’ll…. Have a funny story to tell? Look I’m not great at whole cheering up thing.”

He waved it off and perked up. “It’s fine. Jason ain’t gonna be all too happy about this.”

“Well that’s his problem.”

They continued chatting as they waited for the third member of their trio.

* * *

Maybe he was too used to his Red Hood costume and how well it kept the water off of him, or maybe too out of touch with being out in the elements. But he felt a like a wet, grumpy cat as he dragged himself back up to the RV. In good news he had manged to get the information he needed on a stock broker who had decided to channel some of his funds in the wrong direction. In bad news he was soaked and there weren’t as many towels in the RV as he’d like.

He was greeted enthusiastically by Eddie and with amused indifference by Rose. A couple towels were thrown at him and soon he was sitting at the same table as the other too. Next to Eddie and across from Rose who sat in the middle of the seat she had all to herself.

He ruffled his hair with the towel and as some of the strands fell to his forehead he could feel how chilly they were. And in the warmth of the RV he could tell how chilly the rest of him was too. He didn’t like it, he hated being cold, it was too familiar. He he had to just shake that off and remind himself that it was just rain, just rain, he was alright and so was everything else around him.

“So do you think you’ll be able to get the RV out of the garage?”

Eddie shook his head. “Nope it’s too big. Your bike might fit through the gap between the gate thing and the wall but no way is a whole RV getting through that, and I don’t feel like ramming this thing through the gate.”

Jason and Rose both chuckled. “Yeah that sounds like a real bad idea.” Rose leaned forward. “Besides this thing looks so old I’d have to question if it could do that.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Don’t underestimate something just cause it’s old. Look at Meryl Streep, would you underestimate her?”

“No, but I think you might be over estimating her Eddie.” Jason teased.

Eddie whipped his glaze to Jason with an offended look on his face. “You take back right now!”

In between giggles Jason got out. “I will do no such thing, you can’t make me.”

“Oh yes I can!” Eddie probably only meant to jokingly try to tackle Jason and fail. But instead they both went tumbling onto the floor both laughing their heads off. It had been a while since Jason had been so… casual and friendly with someone. When he had came by Eddie’s when Bruce ‘died’ it had been far more somber, he had just lost family. But he hadn’t now, now he had just seen Rose lose some of hers and she didn’t even know it yet… he was making himself depressed.

Jason looked up at Eddie and Eddie looked down at him with his brown eyes. The stayed still for a moment and Jason could swear he heard someone chanting “Kiss kiss kiss.” under their breath. But taking a sideways glance at Rose revealed that she was too busy laughing to have been doing it.

“Sorry!” Eddie pulled himself off of Jason and using the table got up. And offered a hand to Jason.

“It’s fine.” He took Eddie’s hand and got pulled back up.

Rose got her laughter under control as they took their seats again and started to twirl her hair. “Sooo, we’re in a dark parking lot, in the middle of a thunderstorm, and the power’s out.”

Jason leaned back in his seat. “Yup, but from the way you say all that it sounds like you are implying something.”

“Scary stories? I’m sure we’ve all got some good ones.” The look on her face told him that there was something behind this but he couldn’t tell what. She didn’t seem to have a trace of guilt on her so it probably wasn’t anything bad, or maybe she just didn’t feel guilt for stuff. He didn’t know her well enough to tell.

“Sure! I love that idea!” Eddie obviously was thrilled at the idea. “Can I go first?”

She crossed her arms and nodded. “Knock yourself out.”

He quickly tapped his fingers together as he thought of something. Before holding his finger up with a grin on his face. “I’ve got just the one!” He leaned forward rubbing his hands together. “Alright so, back in the 60s during the filming of a war movie there was a stunt actor named Gary. He was good at his job and well liked by all of the staff other than the director, the director couldn’t stand the guy. But when some of the pyrotechnics for the grenades went wrong and Gary had to be hospitalized that didn’t matter, they were all around him and all in the waiting room when news broke he died-”

“This doesn’t seem very scary.” Rose interrupted.

“It’s getting there hush!” He pressed a finger against her lips and then pulled it away to continue his story. “It was forty odd years later, and the director was still directing. Sure there had been a few other incidents of stuntmen getting injured here and there but it was worth it for the pictures he painted. It was late one evening and he had came back to set to fetch the script he forgot to grab earlier. But as he went to leave he couldn’t open the door, it wouldn’t budge! And behind him he heard a voice, one he hadn’t heard in years. ‘You’ve done wrong by us Bill.’ He turned and behind him he saw Gary, with all the burn marks and still in the costume he died in. “H-How have I done wrong by you?” He was not a superstitious man but what was in front of him made him believe. ‘You keep on directing, keep on putting us in your camera shot and in your line of danger, frigid water, burning fire. We must tame it all or you scream and throw your fit’ He gulped. ‘What am I supposed to do? Not create art?’ he pleaded. ‘If you think your art is worth harm to people, hell peoples lives. Then so be it.’ The director could smell smoke in the air and started to cough and struggle to breath. In the morning all the crew found was burned human remains, and the script, completely intact.”

“Creepy, definitely creepy.” Rose commented.

“Was that some sort of pro-stunt actor rights story that got shared around?”

Eddie laughed. “Oh no, it’s a true story!” Obviously it wasn’t but maybe in spirit it was. Jason shrugged to himself.

Rose leaned towards him. “So how about you go next, lover boy.”

Eddie turned to him confused. “Lover boy? Have you already flirted with her?”

Jason groaned and Rose explained. “I caught him getting lost in my eyes a day back, but other than that he hasn’t been brave enough to make a move.” She chuckled and Eddie let out a small giggle and Jason felt like throwing himself out of a moving RV from embarrassment.

“Sure I’ll go next.” He crossed his hands together and leaned back. “So this is a classic crime ally tale. It was the coldest winter in Gotham in 50 years, and little Lucy was worried about her friend Mary. She knew Mary just got laid off and she might get kicked out to the streets-”

“Are all crime ally stories so depressingly realist?”

He nodded. “It’s part of their charm. Anyways so Little Lucy and a couple of her friends went over to Mary’s house with food and some warm clothes and one of them was planning on offering some couch space-”

“Hold up, is Lucy’s name Little Lucy or just Lucy?” Eddie asked.

“It’s her stripper name, her real name has never been made public. So they knock on Mary’s door and-”

“Is this-” Rose begun to interrupt.

“Stop interrupting me or I’m not finishing the story!” Rose and Eddie pulled back from him. He took a breath and recentered himself before continuing. “They knock on the door and nothing. So most of them go to look around for Mary on the nearby streets and see if maybe she headed for a shelter. But Little Lucy stayed behind in case Mary came back. And tired of standing at the door in the cold she climbed in through one of the windows. The inside was just as cold as the outside though, she passed by the mail slot where several unpaid bills laid. And she entered the living room, rubbing her hands together for warmth. But behind her she heard Mary. ‘I’m so cold.’ She turned around to see Mary, bundled up with all the coats and blankets she had, and yet she still looked blue in the face, in the hands, in the soul. ‘Mary!’ Lucy cried as she went to hug Mary. Mary took a step back and with dead eyes repeated. ‘I’m so cold.’ Lucy headed towards the door. And shouted behind her. ‘I’ll be right back! Me and my friends are gonna get you somewhere warm hon!’ But when they came back the house was empty, and Lucy was the only one who could hear the whispers of ‘I’m so cold’. Some say that even to this day if you find yourself in that house you can hear Mary trying to warm herself up.”

Eddie put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and looked him in the face. “Jason, I really hate to tell you this. But that story is a complete rip off of one from avatar the last air bender.” Rose cackled in the background.

Jason shrugged. “Then I guess someone with cable did a good job at retelling the story!”

“Wait did you now know that? Have you never seen avatar?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t have a lot of time for Television.”

“We are so fixing that soon. Expect a netflix binge in your future.”

He chuckled. “Alright will do.” He turned to Rose. “So what’s your story?”

She grinned. “Five words, Teen Titan’s pizza order canceled.”

They all burst out laughing.


	6. Chapter 6

She never liked to dress up fancy, last time she had done that was for some stuffy party that her old caretaker before the Titans, Sarge took her too. But here she was with her hair pinned up and in a dress bulky enough to hide the costume she had on under it, along with the gear. She had no idea where Jason had gotten it, or how he knew what size she was. But she was not about to ask.

Speaking of Jason he was standing right next to her looking over the sea of party goers, a rainbow of colors from the ladies and the same boring three colors from the guys. He had his eyes on their target, hoping to see where he’d go and who’d he be talking to. She was more in charge of keeping an eye on everyone else to make sure nothing unexpected popped up. Not that anything should come up, this was just a party on the front and a meeting between some drug lords and a broker in the back. She sighed to herself, this was going to go awfully wasn’t it?

At least until the inevitable fight broke out she could stuff herself with the snacks. She had to admit that these people had good taste in strawberries. And chocolate, the chocolate was good too. And the sparkling punch… Dammit she had to admit that these rich people had half decent food didn’t she?

She heard a buzz in her ear, Eddie had something to update her on. She pressed a finger against the communicator. “What’s up?”

“I’ve got visual on two things, uh firstly there’s a girl coming out of of the women’s bathroom when she didn’t enter it in the first place. My best guess is that she got in via the vents.”

Rose shook her head to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Why do they make vents big and strong enough for people to get through?”

“Probably to make sure if an assassin gets in and puts the building on lock down a superhero can still get into to save their butts.”

“Why not just have better security so the assassin doesn’t get in, in the first place?”

“I guess it’s like teaching a kid to bike on grass, limiting the damage instead of preventing it. Anyways over at the front door a woman just paid off security to let her in. I’m gonna need you to go watch her, kay?”

“Sure.”

She took a glance at Jason. “Got all that?”

He nodded, continuing to focus on his task.

And with that she headed through the crowd, pushing past bodies she got the feeling by the end of the night would be running away. She didn’t mean to be a pessimist but her gut was telling her this wouldn’t go well and she’d trust her gut over the hope of an uneventful night. She got to the clearing near the doorway and saw a woman with long black hair pulled back into a thin braid, a dress that looked like it was thrown on in a car and could be torn off with ease, and a large purse. But her face, her face is what Rose lingered on, because she knew that face. Her dad had shown it to her on a list of people to keep an eye open for.

She quickly pressed against her earpiece. “Guys, we’ve got a massive problem. That woman is Shado the assassin and she headed right towards our guy.”

She could hear Jason on the other end throwing off his jacket. “Drop any cover and intersect, I’ll be right there. Eddie can you trip the fire alarm?”

“I’ll try!”

Rose quickly tailed Shado, and as her pace got faster and faster towards the woman she throw off the stupid bulky dress Jason had bought her and revealed her costume underneath, and out from one of the pockets her mask came out. She might not have a cover name but it was still a good idea to cover her face.

She just then saw a glimpse of the future, if she didn’t duck out of the way in about a minute she’d have an arrow going straight through her. She quickly dodged over to the side and shouted behind her. “Duck!”

An arrow went flying past her face and when she turned to the source, Shado. Apparently she was keeping a collapsible bow in that purse of hers. She gave Rose and glare and in a completely steady tone spoke. “Stay out of my way little girl, you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

People were already screaming and yelling and security was already coming over to the two of them when the fire alarm started wailing. The crowd broke out into a panic running for the doors. Security had to push through. But when they got close one was met with an arrow through the neck and the rest were ready to back off. 

Rose charged forward, her sword in hand and ready to strike. Shado blocked the hit using her bow and tried to trip her. Rose took a step back dodging the attempt and that was when Red Hood got over, how he did his quick change so fast she’d never figure out. 

He fired two shots at her and boy did she have grace as both missed. She then fired an arrow back at Red Hood. But Rose was too busy trying to get a hit in to see how he dealt with that. Instead her sword was going to come down on the woman but then she was unexpectedly kicked in the gut, and sent tumbling to the ground.

Another arrow whizzed through the air, but not from Shado, in fact it was aimed for Shado. Of course she just had to go and grab it out of the air like a freaking show off, but then everyone’s gaze turned to the sender.

“Oh hey it’s the bathroom girl!” Rose could hear Eddie say over her earpiece.

“Daughter.” Shado stood tall and gave a firm expression. “Leave me to my work.” She turned around and started to head for the stairs.

But the girl drew another arrow and just as she fired said. “I’m not letting you kill!”

Shado dodged yet another attack and turned back, cold fury in her eyes. It was a look that Rose had seen a parent give to their child before. She couldn’t help but feel awful for the kid, she knew how it felt to be standing there. Shado quickly drew another arrow and aimed at her own child.

But before she shot it Rose got herself off the ground and pulled out her gun. And actually landed a shot. She breathed a slight sigh of relief but the arrow still shot, and it hit the girl in the arm. And then Shado’s fury turned to her, another arrow aimed, and shit. How the fuck was she-

Rose felt a sudden push and then the feeling of the floor on her face and a body on top of her, and then the sound of an arrow hitting the wall. Red Hood out off of her and they both pulled themselves up. The kid also was getting up.

  
  
  


Her arm felt like it was burning, blood was trickling down her arm. But that didn’t matter, neither did the two others that were still in the once lively room. All that mattered to her at the moment was catching up to her mother and stopping her. 

She pushed herself off the ground and ran after her mother, bursting through the stairwell door. She scrambled up the stairs as she did that she could hear two other sets of footsteps. She shouted down to them. “Who the hell are you people?!”

She heard the man shout back. “Help!”

She was nearly at the top. “I don’t need help!”

He shouted back. “Didn’t know you’d be here, who are you?”

She didn’t answer as she pushed through the door and saw her mother standing about 20 paces away from a nervous looking man in a suit, her target. She had her bow aimed true and frankly, Emiko knew the only reason the shot hadn’t already been taken was so that she’d see it. Just another part of her mother’s attempts to get her desensitized to violence.

Two arrows flew through the air, one that missed it’s target and went flying into the night of Star City. And one that found itself in a man’s chest.

“Noo!” She drew three more arrows and began to fire, her mother gracefully weaving through them. 

Then behind her the door burst open again, it was the ‘help’. The man, who she now had the chance to identify as Red Hood shouted out an order to his complain who Emiko didn’t recognize from anywhere. “Help the girl, I’ve got him.” 

He was rushing over to the bleeding body surrounded by both dead and alive security. But of course her mother didn’t want that so was going to shot him. But neither her nor this other lady wanted  _ that  _ to happen so the white haired one went charging and Emiko hung back shooting more arrows at her mother.

Who then turned around and shot an arrow at Emiko’s feet. The confusion only lasted a moment before it hit her hard, that being the small explosion that while small on the fire bit still knocked her off of the roof. She screamed as she found herself in the air and she winced as her hand managed to catch her on the very edge.

She could feel her breath going rapid and if her heart beat any faster she’d probably be in pain from that. Her gaze couldn’t help but wander down to the street below her, steel cars and cold cement wouldn’t protect her if she fell.

But she then felt someone take her hand. For half a second she’s convinced they were about to then drop it. But she felt herself being pulled up and looking up, it was the white haired girl. Who looked about as scared as Emiko felt inside. With her help Emiko scrambled onto the roof which was loud from the few security detail elft calling 911 for their boss, but also quiet from lacking her mother or Red Hood.

She just took in for a second the feeling of her gloved hands against the roof of the building. Her breathing was jagged and her body felt like crying from what it had just dealt with. But she just kept breathing.

“You alright?” The woman who had helped her gave a sympathetic glance.

She slowly nodded. “Just… Just shaken up is all.”

The woman plopped down next to Emiko. “Is your mom always like that or just on bad days?”

She crossed her arms. “Always like that.”

“That blows. Red Hood is trying to track her down as we speak.”

“Why is he here anyways? I heard he got kicked out of Gotham for killing some League of Shadows guy but why California? Star City?

She shrugged ”Welll, he had a friend down in LA and then we just happened to end up here. No idea why.”

“That’s…” Weird? Not at all organized? Who even were these people anyways? She understood the basics of the fact they were probably a superhero group but anything further than that escaped her. “Who are you people anyways? The explanation in the stair’s wasn’t exactly thorough.”

“We’re… Um, we haven’t actually came up with a name yet.” She paused and thought for a moment. “I guess we’re the Outlaws?”

“Outlaws?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Our current membership isn’t exactly spotless let’s put it like that.”

“Who are  _ you  _ anyways?”

The woman let out a chuckle. “I uh, don’t really have a code name. But you can call me Rose. You?”

“I’m Red Arrow, did all the red and the arrows not give you the hint?”

“I just didn’t hear there was a new one, sorry.”

They sat catching their breaths for a few minutes more before Rose got a call on her cons and walked off for a moment. Emiko finally got a chance to process what just happened by herself. She hadn’t needed help, she had that covered. She could have pulled herself up, but it was… nice to have the help? Ughh she had no idea what to feel about everything that just happened.

Rose walked back over, a frown on her face. “Red Hood lost your mom.”

She wasn’t surprised, she always seemed to get away. But she was disappointed, why did her mother always get to get away from her mistakes, from her evil deeds? “Figures…”

Rose sat back down next to her, the expression on her face was strangely soft for what was going on. “So who do you have around?”

“What?”

“I mean who’s looking out for you? Your mom clearly isn’t.”

“Green Arrow, and I guess the rest of the arrow family checks up on me.”

“Where were they? I’d have to imagine they’d help with something like what happened tonight.”

She crossed her arms. “I didn’t tell them, they’re all busy and I had it covered anyways.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You did?”

“I…” She trailed off to silence, she was willing to lie to herself about it but she knew saying it out loud would make it such an obvious lie.

“Hey it’s alright, I’ve been in your shoes before.”

“You have?”

She chuckled. “Your not the only person with an assassin for a parent. My dad is Deathstroke and he isn’t exactly winning any parent of the year awards either.”

“That must be difficult…” She had heard plenty about Deathstroke, and none of it made him sound like an easy parent to have.

“Yeah it can be, I can’t imagine Shado is that easy either.”

She shook her head “She isn’t, but I didn’t get raised by her.”

“I didn’t get raised by my dad. Does make it any more easy, hell I’d say it makes it even harder. There’s not really a connection, just shared violence. Do you get that?”

She nodded. “My mother wants me to be like her, but I’m not. She wants me to see death and not wince. And I mean she nearly just got me thrown off a building.”

Rose glanced over at where the surely dead man laid and then back at Emiko. “How about we go downstairs?”

She shrugged and then followed Rose down. Emiko could tell that she was considering something, though what exactly she had no clue. They finally got down to the site of where the party was, glass littered the ground from the panicked party goers and arrows still sticked out of the walls from the fight.

“Hey, Red Arrow?”

“What?”

Rose turned to her and took her mask off. “I’m wondering something, do you think you’d be interested in joining a group of people who probably quite a couple of life experiences as you?”

“Are you asking me to join your Outlaws team?” She raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged. “I guess I am.”

Emiko thought about it, on one hand she had to question whether or not these people are a bunch of losers, one of them got kicked out the city he worked in, she had no idea who their coms guy was, and Rose was a no name hero. But on the other hand while the arrow family members she had met tried to understand her life and the way she was raised, they frankly didn’t, it’d be nice to have someone around that would, and besides it’d be good to get some practice in heroing outside of Star City.

“You know what? Why not?”

“Great! Quick question, who do I talk to so this doesn’t come off as kidnapping a minor?”


	7. Chapter 7

He was happy to have a break from driving, that stuff could be tiring to do all the time plus it gave him a better chance to get to know the new member of the Outlaws… Apparently they were calling themselves that? He had no idea who picked that name but he guessed it made sense for Rose and Jason, and even to some extent the actual teenager they had on the team. Though as a whole the team were teenagers, Jay was only nineteen due to the whole dying and coming back thing and that had a teen at the end of it. But that was off point, the point was that he felt kinda like the odd one out. He wasn’t ever an assassin or trained by a mercenary and the only family he had, his godfather, well they hadn’t talked in months. Meanwhile everyone else had family drama for days.

Also the only laws he broke were the ones almost all superheroes broke, nothing too serious. Unlike Jason who he knew for a fact had kills under his belt and Rose who he could guess had some pretty messy stuff in her past.

He had told the rest of the team that they were supposed to be sitting down and not doing anything while the RV was moving but leave it up to a team (apparently) called the Outlaws to not listen to a rule. Emiko was up on the loft area watching something on her laptop and Rose was making herself some toast.

Not even Danny was following the rule and instead was just wandering around. He guessed that if there was a bump or something Danny would not be in nearly as much trouble as everyone else would be, but still the disrespect wasn’t great. He sighed realizing something, he wasn’t sure how this didn’t process sooner, but he was this team’s reasonable moral conscious wasn’t he? Jason was trying to be a good person but there were times where he was just too out of it too really be the moral fiber of the group. He wasn’t even sure of Rose’s deal but as far as he knew she had a higher tolerance for violence. And Emiko was like 16? She was too young to have that pressure put on her, and besides, she was the new girl, no one had any idea what her standards were.

“What have I gotten myself into?” He mumbled to himself.

Danny sat down across from him. “A whole load of trouble.” He gave a pointed look.

“I… Trouble?” He quietly replied.

He leaned forward, gesturing his hand around. “I mean you’ve gotten us on a team with mr. lost after coming back over there.” He gestured towards the front of the car. “Ms. too cool for you over here.” He pointed behind him at where Rose was eating her toast. “And little ms. probably shouldn’t have been allowed to join us up there.” He pointed towards the lost area.

Eddie leaned back, a small frown on his face. “Look I get why you’re worried, being on a team got you… “ He looked Danny in the eyes, he could feel his own eyes dampen just a bit. “This will be fine. Jason is in a lot better of a head space and these other two, we don’t even know them well enough to judge.”

He crossed his arms. “It’s not that I’m just worried about you. I’m worried this team is gonna need someone better than you here to help them, and you’ll be the one here instead.”

He winced. “Ouch that’s… brutally… honest of you?” He sighed and looked down at the table. “I just sorta have to hope that doesn’t come up, I think Jason trusts my skills too much to hear out the fact it’d be a good idea to get someone else on management duty.

“Well that’s-”

Rose took the seat next to Danny, who rolled his eyes and just started to stare out the window at the passing landscape.

“Um, were you talking to yourself or was I just imagining things?”

He chuckled. “I was just sorting myself out, ya know? It’s easier to do if I vocalize some of it… I hope it wasn’t bothering you.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t, it just also looked like you were having a conversation.”

He half shrugged. “Uhhh, I guess I was just talking to ghosts?” He played it off like a joke but he could feel a sweat drop running down his forehead and Danny face palmed.

“Ghosts? Do you think this RV is haunted? I mean it does look pretty old.” She glanced around the room, was it weird that he noticed her eyes looked nice? Danny face palmed again like he could tell what was running through Eddie’s head. Ok yeah it was super weird.

He looked at Danny and then back at Rose. “It might be? I mean there are several people who’ve been in here who have died, maybe one is sticking around for some reason.”

She smiled. “That’d be spooky.”

“Yeah real spooky.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“Not as much as I am!” Jason loudly added.

Eddie giggled. Though he had to wonder how much of that conversation he had heard. He was a lot more likely to realize he didn’t really talk to himself all that often and that something was up. And he still wasn’t sure how to explain what was going on.

Emiko came down from the loft and walked over next to the table everyone was at. “Hey, does this thing have a battery so the electricity works while we’re not plugged in or?”

“Ehh,” He looked over Emiko, he couldn’t say he was happy to share the news. “Sometimes it works, but it’s kind of a crapshoot when it does. Sorry.”

“Ugh, I was in the middle of-” She cut herself off.

“Of?” Eddie raised an eyebrow and leaned over. 

She crossed her arms and looked off away from the table. “I was watching a TV show.”

“Ooo what? I’m not gonna judge, I’ve probably watched worse for worse reasons.”

“I’m not saying. It’s none of your business.”

He rested his chin on his hand. “I know, I’m just curious. You can whisper it to me if you don’t want Rose hearing.”

“Hey! I won’t judge either, unless it’s something real trashy like supernatural or keeping up with the kardashians, then I might have to judge.”

“Yeah well I wouldn’t even judge those! And both are those are actually decent, they’ve got good production value behind them and their crew actually puts in some effort. There’s a reason they’re popular.”

Rose chuckled. “Like people who think the leads are hot and the star power they’ve got in those shows.”

Emiko rolled her eyes. “Yeah I’m keeping it to myself, thanks.”

Rose turned to Emiko. “How have you been adjusting to the RV anyways? It’s pretty different from what you must be used to.”

“I’ve been adjusting fine. I guess it’s small but I’ve lived before in places where I didn’t really have personal space.”

“Can I ask where? Or is that… not cool yet?” Rose had been doing pretty well at letting Emiko keep what she wanted to, to herself. 

Emiko sat down next to Rose who moved over leaving Danny with next to no space so he decided to just fly out of it and hover over the table, like that wouldn’t be hella distracting. Judging by the shit eating grin on his face he knew just how distracting it was.

“It’s fine, it’s not really a secret or anything. I grew up with a group of warriors and I had to share a room with someone, so I didn’t exactly get privacy, and we didn’t have a lot of room for everyone’s housing as most of our space was used either for religious purposes or practice grounds.”

“That must have… Well probably quite the culture shock when you went to Star City!” He knew LA had been a culture shock when he was 8, and he didn’t even have a bunch of weird stuff piled up on top to make it any worse.

“My mind was more focused on other stuff when I first got there, mostly going after my own father.”

“Who is your dad anyways? You haven’t mentioned him.” Rose asked.

Emiko took a breath. “Green Arrow, he didn’t know about it till I showed up being manipulated into fighting him. My mom didn’t tell him about me after those warriors took me. I think she had been planning to though.”

“Yeesh, the family drama continues.” Eddie shot a glance up at Danny who just continued to grin.

“Is he good at it?”

“Well he’s better than my mom is at parenting. And he’s trying, I’ll give him that. I even caught him with a parenting book I think Conner got him.”

Both he and Rose chuckled. The image of Green Arrow with a parenting book was humorous to say the least. Danny was busy picking at groat on the roof to care, why was he even doing that? It wasn’t like he could actually pick at the groat.

“Maybe Batman could use one of those, I’ll have to add that on to the list of stuff to give him for his birthday, if I’m allowed in the city for that.” He let out a bitter sounding laugh. 

There was some tension in the air. No one other than Jason seemed to find his comment his comment funny, concerning was probably a better word for what it was. Though all the tension quickly got broken by Rose asking a fair question. “Wait, Batman has a birthday?”

Jason laughed, the difference in how it sounded from his laugh just a moment ago crystal clear. “Course he does, what did you think? He popped into existence one day as a fully formed crime fighter?”

Rose shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess I did.”

“Yeah no, there’s even baby photos of hi-” 

Jason’s comment was interrupted by a sudden lurch of the RV, the engine sounded a lot louder than it should. And it sounded like it was spitting to keep up. Everyone at the table exchanged a nervous glance as the RV came to a halt. 


	8. Chapter 7

Eddie popped the hood down and looked up at him and everyone else standing next to him. Jason had his hands in his pockets and was keeping his eyes on Eddie, Rose seemed bored and was glancing around, and Emiko was a few paces away taking a look up and down the highway.

“I think I’ll be able to fix this, but it’s gonna take me a bit and I’ll want some help. Emiko would you be up for it?”

She looked over at the RV situation. “Why me? Wouldn’t Jason be more helpful? I mean he’s owned a car before.”

“Yeah well this might be a good chance for you to learn something, and besides most of the help I’ll need is like handing me stuff or holding a flashlight.”

She raised an eyebrow “Seriously? I’m not here to learn car repair.”

“But you are here. And hey, learning some car repair hasn’t ever killed anybody.”

“I’m sure it has, just take a look at how many mechanics have been crushed, but fine.”

Jason snickered. He wasn’t thrilled that there was a kid with them. And that Rose made that decision without talking with him or Eddie. But the kid was fitting right in with them. And maybe that was a little troubling but hey it’s giving her somewhere not judgmental? Maybe that was a reach and he just wanted some reason that this could be a good idea.

“Great! Thanks!”

“Anything we should do?” Rose asked.

“Stay out of the RV and stay out of trouble, if I need anything else I’ll let you guys know.”

“We’ll try, but you know how I am.” Jason teased. Trouble might as well be his home town for how often he ends up in it. Though Gotham might as well change its name to that considering all the chaos the city had to offer.

He and Rose wandered over to the side of the road. The grass was brown and a little sparse, but hey it wasn’t a desert or anything. And judging by Rose plopping down and not immediately getting up implied it wasn’t too uncomfortable to sit on, though something that bad to sit down on was rare.

Jason sat down next to her, resting an arm on his knee. He had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t just teaching Emiko car repair that motivated Eddie to leave him and Rose alone for a bit. He knew it bothered Eddie that he hadn’t told Rose about Grant yet, but he still was struggling to find the right words.

“Sooo,” Rose leaned back and looked at him. “How long do you think they’ll take?” She nodded towards Eddie and Emiko who just entered the RV, presumably to grab some of the tools.

He shrugged. “An hour or two at least, I’m just hoping to get out of here before dark. Both cause the temperature is gonna go way down. And we’ve got a schedule to keep up, my contact won’t be happy if we’re late to the Platinum Flats, and honestly I won’t be too happy either.” They had an important job to do there.

“Who even is your contact?”

“Oracle, they’re probably the top person for information and they regularly work with Batman.” There was far more but that was only for Batfamily and the Birds of Prey to know. And sure Rose was great, but she wasn’t either of those things.

“Are they part of the Batfamily or whatever you guys call yourselves?”

He chuckled. “It depends on the person what they call us, I’ve heard batfam, batclan, Batman and associates, hell I’ve even heard Batman Inc. Which implies we’re a company and I’m not really sure how to feel about that.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Do you guys have any merch?”

“Batman and Nightwing have both agreed to likeness being used for charity, so there’s a couple toys and like, t-shirts that are official.”

“Oh yeah, I actually have one of the Nightwing shirts.” She chuckled.

“Wha.. Why on earth do you have that?”

“I thought it’d be funny, I was staying with the Teen Titans at the time.”

“How’d Dick react?”

“He also thought it was funny and then got one of the shirts himself. And then everyone else hopped on the trend and by the end of the month everyone had worn a Nightwing shirt at least once.”

He snorted. “Are there any pictures?”

She nodded and pulled out her phone. And after a minute of scrolling through pictures found it. And yup, it was all the Teen Titans in Nightwing shirts. He laughed and she joined in. It took half a minute to calm back down.

“So to get back to the question you asked-”

She face palmed, snorting a little bit. “Right, I asked a question. I forgot.” 

“Oracle is a batfamily member.”

Rose leaned towards him, her head tilted. “I thought since you got kicked out of Gotham none of them would be talking with you?”

“Oracle is practical, and really smart. I’m pretty sure they realize I didn’t push…” Rose’s older brother. “Push him off the roof. And they knew I was close by where they needed something done so they called me.”

Rose took a pause for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”

He shrugged. “Don’t see any reason why you couldn’t.”

“What even happened that got you kicked out? I mean I’ve heard bits and pieces and have figured out a few things from stuff you or Eddie have said. But I haven’t really gotten the full story.”

Jason sighed. He knew the topic was going to come up but he still didn’t like it, and it directly connected to who died that night. “I… It was late, I was out on patrol as Red Hood as I usually am at that time of night. And I heard some radio chatter about a break in, some important lawyer, important enough to probably be on at least one person’s hit list. I was close enough to get there in a reasonable time so I took it up.” He took a breath and crossed his arms. “It was a set up. Someone… This guy I used to train with when I was with the League of Shadows was there, they wanted me back and would refuse to take no for an answer. And Gr-” He just stared ahead at the road for a moment, he could feel Rose looking at him but he had to ignore that to try and keep it together. “It was personal for Twilight. We fought and during that fight we moved out of the apartment, and we ended up on Wayne tower.” He let a small bitter laugh, the irony in where it happened wasn’t lost on him. “He misstepped, and plummeted to his death. And Batman was nearby and saw the falling bit and just assumed I did it.”

He finally glanced over at Rose, who had sympathy in her eyes. She reached out a hand and gave him a firm pat on the shoulder. “That sounds… pretty traumatic.”

“Yeah well that ain’t the worst I’ve been through.”

“Why would your own dad think you did it? I’d think he’d have a little more faith in his own kid.”

He felt like another bitter laugh was going to come out of him, but all he heard was another sigh. “His faith in me died with me.” He leaned into the pat. “Actually maybe it died a little before that. I made a pretty big mistake before my death. I pushed someone to his death, the guy was the exact type of prick that I had seen time and again in crime alley getting away with hurting vulnerable people. And he was going to get away with raping and basically murdering a woman just because he had his daddy’s money.”

“Shit man, that’s… something.”

He snickered. “Yeah it was a fucked up stitch, and I regretted instantly. I wasn’t Red Hood yet, just fifteen year old that was too fucked up.”

She sighed and leaned back. “Like I get where you were coming from, and that guy sounds like such a shithole. But I don’t know, it’s hard to empathize with. Even though… well I don’t got a clean record either.”

He gave a sympathetic glance and patted her on the shoulder. A tiny smile on his face. “Then it’s lucky I don’t really need that. You just beginning to understand is good enough here.” His smile faded. “Can I ask what you’ve done? I get is that’s, maybe too personal but I thought I might as well ask.”

She glanced off, a few tears rolled down her face. “When I was ten I accidentally shot my mom.”

He slowly leaned in for a hug, and she didn’t pull away or anything so he hugged her. “That must have been awful. I lost my mom pretty young too but I didn’t, I didn’t have to deal with that sort of guilt.”

She actually leaned into the hug. “It was pretty bad when I was a kid. It’s better now though, I know it wasn’t my fault now. I miss her a lot.”

He slightly nodded. “I’d bet, i miss my mom too.”

The sat in quiet for a bit. Neither sure what to say. Jason wasn’t sure if he should regret bringing the topic up, it had definitely been a hard one. And more vulnerable than he was planning to be that day. But he was pretty sure he and Rose had a better understanding of each other. And she was managing to pull herself together, it hadn’t ruined her whole day or anything.

But he still had a topic to bring up that might. And honestly it was a bandaid, he had to rip it off at some point. That or let it slowly lose it’s adhesive and leave that awful old glue on the skin. “Hey, can I talk with you about something? It’s about as dark as the thing we just talked about so I want to check.”

She laughed. “I can’t imagine how it be as- You know what? I’m not gonna finish that cause I’ve got the feeling you’re about to make me eat my words. What is it?”

“I knew your brother.” Great, he got it out of his mouth, that wasn’t that hard now was it? The explaining probably would be.

She looked more than a little confused. “Joey?”

He shook his head. “No, Grant. I knew Grant.”

“Oh, were you two both in the League of Shadows at the same time?”

“Uh, well yeah we were but it goes a little deeper than that. He was Talia's other pet project and as such he was actually the guy that went and got my body. No idea how he got past the grave security-”

“Grave security?”

He giggled. “Yeah, like to give a heads up for grave robber’s or zombie uprisings. Totally normal stuff to be prepared for.”

She let out a snort.

“And after I got revived he was my usual training partner, and we were fairly close actually. I guess he was missing the whole having someone younger around thing and I was in a place where I could fill that.”

Her eyes were wider than usual. “So your telling me Grant filled in the space Joey left, with you?”

He nodded.

She could barely suppress her laughter, though got out in between giggles and snorts. “You are so unlike Joey.” She took a moment to chill out. “Okay sorry about that, it’s just you two are so different. Can I ask where this is going to get dark?”

“It’s fine. I mean it already is, your older brother basically ended up in a murder eco terrorism cult and the pet project of one of the Al Ghul’s, and trust me that isn’t something that leaves someone without a lot of problems.”

Any humor still left in her face faded. “I… yeah okay that’s pretty bad when I give it a bit of thought.”

“And where this story is going isn’t good. Rose I, I’m sorry. He... he was Twilight.”

“The guy that-”

He nodded and Rose fell silent.

They sat there for a few minutes. That was probably a lot to process and break down to all of its implications. At least Jason could look over at the RV and see that Eddie and Emiko were making some progress. And he could hear faintly them talking, Eddie in his eternally upbeat tone, and Emiko with her a little bit deep cool teenager voice. They definitely were having an easier conversation than he and Rose were.

Rose suddenly spoke up. “Thanks for telling me.”

“Sure thing.”


	9. Chapter 9

It wasn’t too hard to fix the problem thankfully, because frankly if Eddie had kept asking her questions about Keeping up with the Kardashians for much longer she would have lost it. Consider that a lesson learned about telling anyone she watched the show. Even if they won’t judge her for it.

But that was all in the past. In the present it was time to actually do the mission that had them travel to the Platinum Flats. Taking down some meta human traffickers, some punks that were kidnapping people with powers to sell to the highest bidder, and lord knows what would happen to those people afterwards. 

She stood in costume, her red hood over her hair, a mask on her face, and a bow and quiver on her back. Jason and Rose were in the outfits she had met them in, and Eddie was somewhere nearby with his laptop and some access to what security cameras were around along with a camera built into Red Hood’s mask.

The were on one of those things used to lift heavy cargo onto ships. Looking down on two warehouses that were being used for meta trafficking. She was starting to wonder if any warehouse actually got used for the intended purpose of storing items for some period of time. Because in her experience they always seemed full of criminals.

She could hear Eddie over her earpiece. “Okay so the security guys are coming back round to the front from the east side.”

Red Hood started to get down from their perch. “Understood. Rose, Red stick close.”

They all got down via one of her arrows with rope on it. All of them making pretty good time getting down, though Rose could probably use some practice later.

They snuck around behind the guard and she kept an eye on Rose and Red Hood’s backs as they quietly took out the two security guys, that head trauma was probably going to hurt in the long run but considering that if they had been dealing with Red Hood two years ago they’d probably be dead they could consider themselves lucky in her book. 

They ran along the side of the building now that they were free of the concern of security seeing them and shooting at them. That would have both been bad on just the level of being shot at is never a good thing, and that would have ruined any stealth they could have.

Before they quite round the bend to the back of the building Eddie spoke up again. “Heads up, a guy just went out the back door for a smoke.”

“Well at least that tells us the door’s unlocked. Anyway to sneak up on him?”

“Not unless you literally drop down on him. He’s leaned up against the wall.”

Red Hood cocked his head to the side. “I can do that.”

He then turned his gaze over to her and Rose. “You two stay near the corner. I’m heading up on to the roof.”

She nodded and Rose said. “Kay.”

And like that he was pulling out a grappling hook and getting up on the roof. Meanwhile they creeped over to the corner. Keeping their ears out for the sound of the coast getting cleared. A few moments passed with the only sounds being their breaths, and then finally a thud sound and muffled screaming. A moment of that passed before near silence fell again and booted footsteps rounded the corner.

Red Hood was was rubbing his hands together. “He’s down.”

They all went to the back. The man was propped up against the wall with handcuffs on. He looked too peaceful while unconscious for a man that was helping traffic people. But the unconscious didn’t exactly scare easily and she had more important things to focus on. The three of them crowded around the backdoor, Red Hood right in front, Rose off to his side and she was behind both of them. 

“Alright we’re clear on this right? Me and Rose dispatch the guards and the people in charge that are here while Red Arrow gets as many people as she can out so they aren’t in the middle of the fight. Prioritize the young, sick, or old.”

“We’re clear.” Rose said.

She nodded. “Got it.”

He took a breath and then opened the door. The large room was divided up using curtains and space dividers. Off to one side there was some friendly chatter and laughter. And the other had whispers and some quiet sobbing.

Rose and Red Hood went off in the direction of the bastards behind this as she ducked into the area for the kidnapped people. She was horrified by what she saw. They had several ways of keeping people in. Some people looked beat up and were tied to pipes against the wall. A few others were tied or handcuffed to pieces of large furniture. And there was a large cargo box from which she could hear noises. And that was just what she could see. There was soe space off to her right that had more room dividers.

Some of the people, the ones less beat up looked up at her and their faces lit up. It was clear that she wasn’t one of their captures. She was there to free them. One looked like he was about to say something but before a sound could come up she held a finger up to her mouth and gave a glare to them all. The guy nodded and then elbowed the person next to him.

She got started on cutting one of the ropes as she and the rest of the people heard the beginning of Rose and Red Hood’s fight. Gunshots and yelling, so much yelling. Some of the captives looked panicked and some chatter begun as others started to sob even harder. 

“You all are going to be okay, I promise.” She could now speak freely since the gunshots masked what she was doing.

She got the first of the ropes cut and the rest soon followed. The ones that were less beat up or in better shape helped the ones less fortunate get up on their feet. “I’ll be back. I just need to get these guys out.”

She quickly lead the first group outside and told them where to go and that help would be there soon. She then ran back instead where the firefight continued. The curtains were starting to get torn by the bullets. So she’d need to work quick.

She returned to the people still trapped. Starting work on one of the handcuffed woman, but as the cuffs fell to the ground thanks to a universal key bought off of the internet she spoke up. “Behind the other curtain, there’s more people there.”

Red Arrow took a quick glance behind her and then back at the woman. “Do you think you are strong enough to help others get out of their cuff with this?” She held up the key and the woman nodded. “Then here take this.” She dropped the key into the woman’s hands and then went through the other curtain.

This area was mostly empty of people. Most of the space had empty cages, like the ones a person would put outside for a large  _ dog _ . But there were two people here, in one of the cages there were two  _ children _ . Emiko immediately rushed over and pulled the door off its hinges, there were pretty weak but the two children after weeks of mistreatment and not eating enough weren’t able to do that.

“Are you guys okay?”

The older of them nodded while the younger one hid behind the older one.

“You guys are going to be okay now.”

She directed them to the rest of the now freed captives and then using her rope arrow got herself up into the rafters. She felt a cold fury in her gut, these people, no monsters kidnapped and then locked up two children like they were freaking dogs. She scanned down on the fight that had just reached a lull as the goons were all out and all that was left was the boss who had barricaded himself in the small office room on a loft area. Red Hood looked to be readying himself to burst the door open. But before she could do that she shot another one of her rope arrows and holding on tight to her bow she swung in through the window. A million shards of glass hitting the ground.

She rolled into the landing and stood up to see backed in the corner a man cowering in fear. His eyes wide and sweat running down his face. “P-Please don’t hurt me! I-I can pay you!”

She frowned at him. This man dares bag for mercy when he was responsible for the atrocity that she had seen down stairs. She raised her bow, an arrow aimed for his chest. She took a breath to steady herself before taking the shot, but before she could the door burst open and Rose and Red Hood entered the scene.

“Red Arrow stand down!” Red Hood shouted at her.

She didn’t, still staring at the man with her bow drawn.

“Now!” 

Rose got behind her and pulled her away from the man. She felt almost tempted to elbow her but didn’t. Instead lowering her bow. She at least got some satisfaction from Red Hood punching the man in the face just a couple more times than necessary.

They all got outside and away from the scene as the police arrived, called by Eddie when they were ready. Jason pulled her off to the side as Rose talked over her ear piece to Eddie,

“We’re going to be talking about what happened back there in a bit, once we’ve all got a chance to calm down.”

She just stared up at him. She had no idea how she was feeling. The fury was less, but still there. But some other part of her processed what she could have just done.

And it was scared.


	10. Chapter 10

It was his idea to camp out for the evening. Everyone seemed to need some wind down time due to how serious the mission had got. Every mission would have its cost on energy or mental health, that one just had been especially bad. Any mission where kids got involved were exhausting. But it had been too much on their youngest and lead her to near a breaking point. 

A breaking point he understood all too well. He honestly was near that point too with that man, but he had practice in restraining himself. And he knew he had too, just for his reputation's sake if nothing else. But it was troubling to see Emiko at that point. 

He had promised her that they’d be having a talk and well, the time seemed to have came. Eddie and Rose were busy talking with each other and Emiko seemed to just be cleaning her bow in the RV.

He took the seat across from her and cleared his throat. She didn’t look up. “We should go on a walk.”

She glanced her eyes up at him but then glanced back down at what she was doing. “Why? You’re perfectly capable of talking to me here aren’t you?”

“Yeah well the fresh air might be nice. Besides, I find it’s easier to talk about stuff like this with some open space around.”

She sighed and finally looked at him. “Fine, let’s go.” She got up from her seat and grabbed her hoodie off the back of the seat.

They both climbed down the metal stairs of the RV and started heading off to a pathway. Eddie yelled over at them. “Going on a walk?”

“Yeah.” Jason shouted back, taking a look at him and Rose. They seemed like they were alright, which was good, he had enough to deal with already.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, Jason leading the way with his hands in his pockets and an itch for a smoke. But he hadn’t brought any with him, he wasn’t going to expose Emiko to a bunch of second hand smoke. That didn’t stop his nerves from wanting something to tame them down, the best he could offer was some controlled breathing.

Soon enough he felt like they were far enough away, dark greens and browns surrounded them and they could no longer hear Eddie or Rose. He strolled over to a tree and leaned up against it. Emiko stood in front of him and crossed his arms.

“So I’m sure you’ve got you explanation and reasoning readied for this, right?” He knew where she was standing in this. He had been right there in her place and had an understanding of what must have been running through her mind.

“He… The guy would have deserved it if I had done it. And don’t argue that, you would have killed him if it weren’t for the bat on your chest.” She pointed towards his chest despite the fact that he wasn’t in costume, just a t-shirt and his jacket.

“I wasn’t going to. Honestly the guy deserves worse and I can hope the justice system will give him the worse they can. But that’s not what this is about. This is about you, what got to you in the moment and what we can do to prevent that in the future.”

She paused. “Why… why do you care? Nothing actually happened, and I mean… I don’t know, it’s weird to be having  _ this  _ conversation with Red Hood.”

He sighed and crossed his arms. “I’m sure it is weird to be having this conversation with me of all people. But there’s a reason we’re having this conversation. I understand where your at, I’ve been there too.”

“And let me guess, you’re about to warn me to not go down ‘the same path you did’?”

He chuckled. “I don’t think you’re at risk of that, just avoid getting revived from the dead by the League of Shadows and you’ll be in the clear for that. What I’m actually going to say is that you need to wait before acting out on that righteous fury you’ve got, it’s good you can feel so strongly about this. But you need to wait till you’re older to decide if acting out that fury by killing people is what you want to do with your life. I wasn’t much older than you when I made that choice but my circumstances were different, I had nothing to lose, my future, family and life were already all gone. You’ve still got those things, so consider them before you do anything, kay?”

She looked off. Considering his words he hoped. They were just about what he thought on the matter, just a little sanitized to fit her circumstances. She then finally let out a sigh. “Even without thinking about any of that, I couldn’t do it. I looked in that man’s face and I so badly wanted it frozen in that fear but I couldn’t do it.”

“Are you glad that you couldn’t?”

“I… I don’t know. My training told me to take a life if it had to be, if it presented a risk to others lives. And that man ruined lives and might get away with it since he’s got money to burn. So I almost feel like I failed.”

“I get that, I really do. It’s basically the story of my career as Red Hood since getting back on some good graces of Bats. Training to do something, that it’s the best and most effective way of getting around a problem. But anyone around you and some part of your morals says it isn’t and that in fact it’s wrong. The way you got wired is wrong.” He had that conversation with himself and others many times.

“And? It kinda seemed like you were going somewhere with that. Like maybe you had some idea about what to about it or… just, something?”

He shrugged and looked down at the ground. “Honestly I don’t got much, I’m pretty obviously still struggling with my issues. But I can say that being around people that keep you in check is important, it gives you space to think about what you’re doing.”

She looked at him. “Is that why we’re having this conversation?”

“Kinda, it seemed like we needed to have this chat anyways and it also does set an expectation that if one of us nearly goes too far or actually does, that the team is going to sit down and talk about it later.”

“So let’s say you nearly kill someone, me and the rest of the team are supposed to do this-” She waved her finger around the area. “To you?”

He nodded. “Yup, you got it. Though if that happens it’s going to be more up to Eddie and Rose than you to do that, you are the youngest so you’ve got less responsibility for the rest of the team.”

“I’m sixteen I’m don’t nee-”

He held his hand up. “Slow down, it’s not babying you. It’s more to avoid dumping shit on you. Plus hey, why complain. It gives you more free time.”

She paused and then shrugged. “I guess you have a point.”

He stopped leaning against the tree and started walking back. Emiko followed close behind. “By the way-” He looked behind him at Emiko. “You’ll be happy to know that those two kids are at home now and their parents are delighted to see them.”

“Do you think they’ll be okay? What they must have went through…”

“They’ll have their family and community to support them. Plus I heard one of the Wayne foundation groups gave the family some extra cash, some gifts for the kids and access to some mental health services.”

“Okay, that does make me happy to know.”

  
  
  


She felt bad about leaving the talking up to Jason. She felt like she was the one closer with Emiko. But he had insisted and told her that it was important to him that he do it so she let him. That didn’t make her feel any less guilty over it though. Not even a gooey marshmallow freshly roasted was doing much to make her feel better.

She was resting her chin on her hand and her other hand was busy roasting another marshmallow in hopes that maybe that’d be the one to wash away the guilt. 

“You alright?” Eddie asked as he leaned closer to her.

“Just peachy, why do you ask?” Was it that obvious that something was up? 

“You stared at Jason and Emiko as they walked off and you just sorta seem like…” He shrugged. “Down?”

She leaned back. “I just feel bad that I’m not helping deal with what happened.”

“Don’t.” Eddie extended his hand to the one that was holding the stick with a marshmallow. “Jason knows what he’s doing and you can’t be the only one that helps her.”

She looked over at him with a frown on her face. He however had a smile on his face, that seemed to be his version of a neutral expression. “Yeah but I’m probably the one close-”

“Look, Rose. He’s got it covered, and sure he and Emiko have talked a little less than you’ve talked but they’ve got other things to relate on than you do with her. And I’m pretty sure those are the things that are gonna get brought up in that conversation.”

She turned back to her marshmallow. Eddie had a decent point, and it helped a little bit to deal with her guilt. Her thoughts got interrupted by the marshmallow catching flame, and not even a little flame, no it was a big one. She quickly pulled it out and blew on it, after a couple of breaths it finally went out, leaving a burned, blackened marshmallow.

“Hot damn that thing caught!”

She nodded. “Yeah, I think this one is a little too burned for my tastes.” She pulled it off and was going to throw it in the fire.

“Hey can I have that?”

She looked down at it, it was more burned than even people who liked burned marshmallows would like. “You sure you want it?”

He nodded. So she threw it over and he devoured it pretty much immediately. She still felt a little guilty but maybe Eddie could distract her from that.


	11. Chapter 11

He pulled on the collar on his shirt uncomfortable in such… fancy wasn’t really the right word but it was the closest. The last time he was in a dress shirt was aunt Marla’s funeral. Since then he had just been wearing what was comfortable, even at Danny’s funeral he had been in something more casual, everyone else had been in costume so that was what had felt natural at the time.

But at the moment the people around him were also in evening attire. Rose had a pretty blue dress on and Jason had a suit and tie on. Though the red dress shirt was a nice splash of color. In comparison Eddie was dressed casually, just a white dress shirt that was a tiny bit big on him (Mostly because he had to barrow one from Rose) and some black pants. Though Danny hadn’t even bothered to get dressed up and was just in a graphic t-shirt and jeans, but to be fair Eddie was the only person that could see him, and he wasn’t even sure if Danny could change outfits. As he had never seen him change out of the clothes that he had died in.

He felt out of place in a casino but it was for a mission so he couldn’t really complain. But it was just so bright, and noisy. The slot machines were pretty far from where he and the others were sitting but the noise from there still made him want to curl up under five blankets.

He felt a light hit on his side from an elbow. He turned and there was Jason. “You alright? You were zoning off there.”

“Oh, sorry! It’s just really loud in here, loud and flashy.” Just the sound or just the light he could deal with but both was making this hard. 

Jason patted him on the back. “Hey it’s alright. Look it’ll be better once we can get you in place. The maintenance areas are definitely more dark at the very least, I can’t promise it’ll be any more quiet though.”

“That’s fine, it’s the combination that’s getting to me. Why I can’t I just go there right now again?”

“Wasn’t it something like you-” She pointed at Jason. “-Think our target will have his personal security do a sweep through there to make sure there isn’t a set up?”

Jason nodded. “Yup, so that’s why we’re playing the waiting game.”

“Gotta love the waiting game, don’t ‘ya.” Danny added in.

He rolled his eyes at Danny. Who just laughed at him in response.

“Look I know you want to get to the action, I do to and I’m sure Rose feels the same-” She nodded. “-But hey, at least with this free time we can play some cards and Rose can figure out if using her powers in here is cheating.” Aw shit Jason thought he was rolling his eyes at him didn’t he. That was one of the problems of having a ghost following him around.

“I mean it’s just a natural ability, but on the other hand they don’t exactly like card counting.”

Jason leaned closer to her. “I think it’s less a matter of that and more if you could get away with it if you did use your powers. They’d notice if you were doing too well, and then you might get put on the blacklist and that’d put a real hamper on this whole mission wouldn’t it?”

She chuckled. “I could totally get away with it. I’d let myself lose a little bit but come back around right near the end. Believable, right?”

“Ehh, I’m not sure. I honestly don’t know much about gambling other than what I’ve learned from hanging around the Iceberg Lounge a bit. And any cheating there ends with everyone pointing guns at each other.” He laughed.

“Do you have a good poker face? If you’re looking smug the whole time they’ll definitely catch on.” Eddie added.

She shrugged. “Don’t know, I haven’t really ever gambled.”

Jason sighed and put his face in his hand, slowly shaking it to himself. “We’re a team that calls our selves the Outlaws, we do all that sorta rebellious stuff. And you’re telling me none of us have ever gambled?”

“I’ve gambled.” 

Jason turned to Eddie, eyebrow raised. “You have? When?”

“Well on set when the sets were being set up and I wasn’t needed for anything I’d hang around the other people waiting and they’d play a lot of card games. I’ve never been in a casino before but I’ve played the card games at least.”

“Huh, the more you know.” Rose said.

Jason clapped his hands together. “Well then, how about we hit a table?”

There was a murmur of agreement between them and then they set off to a table. They were all pretty good at it for different reasons. Jason was scary good at tactics and having a poker face. Rose could literally see into the future. And he had played before, though out of the three of them he was the worst. And Danny while he was hanging around and even looking at everybody else’s cards, refused to help in the slightest, as was usual for him.

They then found themselves over at the bar dispute the fact that they were all still underage. None of them were drinking alcohol though. They were on a mission after all, being drunk would be a horrible idea. He had a cola in front of him meanwhile Jason had a ginger ale and Rose just got water.

“So what do you usually drink?” Rose asked Jason.

“Hmm, it depends. If I’m at home a beer or something like that but at somewhere like this or a bar I’d get something stronger. Like whisky.”

“And then he’d get totally drunk.” Eddie added in between slight giggles.

“You a lightweight? You don’t really look it?” Rose sized Jason up and well, she was right. Jason was a big guy, tough built and had a growth spurt that left Eddie a little jealous. 

Jason began to shake his head, slight pink on his cheeks. “No not at al-”

Eddie lightly punched him in the shoulder. “You are such a lier!” He poked his head around Jason to look at Rose. “One or two glasses and he is just rambling. Trust me I had him in my house for a while last year.”

Rose chuckled. “I can handle more than you, and you’re like, six feet tall.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah I know. I’ve got no idea why I’m even like that but I am.”

“What about you Eddie? What do you drink?”

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve only ever really had some wine during religious stuff or at funerals.”

“Commune?” 

He shook his head. “Nope, usually Shabbat.”

“Oh alright. Have you ever gotten drunk off that or?”

He shook his head again. “Not really, you don’t usually drink enough to get drunk.”

“I’ve gotten drunk before! That party was such a bad idea and so was that beer.” Danny added. “Like who thought, yup a bunch of superpowered teenagers. Nothing could go wrong if they had a party. Superboy won’t end up drunk and try to see how many people he can stack on top of each other using his powers.” Wow was he still salty about that even after death? Danny had been the one on the bottom when it collapsed to be fair. 

“Yeah I don’t know who’s idea that was.” Eddie replied.

The other two stared at him for a moment, both confused looking. What was it? Wait, aw shit e replied to Danny. And it had been too long a pause to just play it off as him continuing what he was saying. Even though that wouldn’t have even really helped.

“Um.” Jason glanced around and then back at Eddie. “Nobody said anything.”

Eddie’s eyes wandered down to the floor and he took a long sip of his cola. “Yeah…. Uh, I was talking to myself…?” He shrugged.

Jason and Rose glanced at each other and then thankfully dropped the topic. He felt so embarrassed. Thanks a lot Danny! Speaking of Danny he was laughing his head off at Eddie. 

“So I wonder what Emiko is doing while we’re here.” Rose said.

Eddie shrugged. “Probably watching more of that show that she likes.”

“What is it anyways? She told you while you guys were fixing the car right?”

“Yup! But I’m not telling you. I got sworn to secrecy. And she’d probably kick my ass if she found out I told you guys.”

Jason leaned back in his chair. “It can’t be that embarrassing can it?”

“Even if it isn’t it’s still her business.” 

Rose was staring off at one of the doors that led deeper into the casino. She then turned to Jason and frantically poked at him.

“What! What?” 

She pointed towards the door area. Both Jason and he looked. The owner of the casino, a woman with white hair named Jennet was with a man with ginger brown hair, another man with short black hair and some facial hair as well, a woman with short brown hair that looked pretty cool. And was that Bane with them?!

“What on earth is going on over there?” Eddie asked.

“Probably trouble. I think that’s the Secret Six, they’re a bunch of fuck up villains that work together.” He began pointing at each of the people. “Looks like we got Deadshot, Catman, Scandal, Jennett who we were expecting, and Bane.” Jason took a gulp of his drink. “Can’t say I’m looking forward to this.”

“Catman?” He had never heard of that guy.

Jason nodded. “His real name is Thomas Blake and while his name is silly you shouldn’t underestimate him. He’s a good fighter and more troubling, one of the best trackers in the world. So if we pissed them off enough it’ll be hard to shake them in the RV.”

Eddie blankly blinked a couple times. Man the world of superheroes could be weird at times.

“They look like a bunch of dweebs.” Danny oh so ever helpfully commentated.

“Do you think we’ll have to fight them?” Rose asked.

“Well we’ll be snooping on Jennett's private conversation so I’d have to imagine if we get caught we will. So be on your best mission impossible style stealth.”

Rose threw back the rest of her water like it was something stronger. “Got it.”

Just then two security guys came over. Eddie felt his breaths become sharper. “The boss wants to talk with you three.”

Jason leaned back with a casual grin on his face. “Are you sure you’ve got the right people? We were just enjoying some drinks, nothing much the ‘boss’ would want to talk with us about.”

“I’m sure.” 

One of them grabbed Eddie by the arm and pulled him off his seat. He looked at Jason and Rose for some clue what to do. And it looked like the plan for the moment was to just go with it? They both got up from their seats and started to follow security. Eddie’s arm was let go of thankfully.

They were marched over to where the Secract Six were standing. Jennett looked pretty pleased with herself as they were left in front of her and her group.

“Well what do we have here?”

Jason frowned. “Some customers who’ve been interrupted from their drinking.”

Deadshot rolled his eyes. Eddie was 100% sure that none of them would buy what Jason was trying to sell.

Bane spoke and Eddie felt like hiding. “The Red Hood, a customer in Jennetts casino. I have trouble believing that.”

Deadshot got up in Jason’s space. Despite the years of age difference Deadshot was only an inch taller. But the scowl on his face more than made up for the lack of height based intimidation, at least in Eddie’s book. “What the hell do you want here? Shouldn’t be running around in Gotham?”

“We are so screwed.” Danny was apparently flouting behind him, ready to do nothing other than distract him.

Jason crossed his arms. “Got kicked out of there, haven’t you heard?” He turned his eyes to Bane. “I’m sure you’ve at least heard.” He turned his eyes back to Deadshot. “But what I want is frankly, none of your damn business.”

Jennett pushed past deadshot and was now the one in Jason’s face, or more like lower face as even with her heels she didn’t quite meet eye to eye. “It became our business the minute you stepped into  _ my  _ casino.”

Rose tried to get in between them. “Look we aren’t here to start trouble.” 

Catman joined the tight grouping of Jason, Deadshot, Jennett, and Rose with his arms crossed. “Well trouble is what you’re going to get.”

Scandal was watching the situation closely but letting her teammates deal with it. He met her eyes for a moment and thought he’d die with the glare that she gave. But when Bane looked like he was about to join in the ‘conversation’ that was going on she spoke up. “Look can we hurry this up guys? We’ve got a trap to set up and you all are wasting are time!” 

Jason turned to Scandal. “Trap?”

“It’s none of your business.” She snapped back.

Eddie took a couple steps away from this mess. He felt really like a fish out of water and frankly had nothing to do with what was happening right in front of him. However what was behind him involved him greatly. As he felt something cold and metal against the back of his head as he stepped back. “Uh.”

Everyone turned to look at the predicament he just got in, and he couldn’t say the Secret Six’s shared look of concern and/or fear soothed any of his fears. And from behind him he could hear the creepiest voice he had ever heard. “Follow my words carefully-” He could hear them pull something out of a pocket? And then open something. “We wouldn’t want my finger to slip now would we?”

Eddie’s finger slipped into his pocket where he pressed the distress signal button he had in it. And then he was pushed forward to enter deeper into the casino with everyone else.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello I am back! I was gone a little longer than I expected due to moving and then getting sick and then getting back in my mojo but I have an update for y'all!
> 
> Also I'm not going to be updating daily from here on out as trying to do that would burn me out and leave me with little time my other writing projects. But I'll try to update as frequently as I can!

She absentmindedly jammed more popcorn into her mouth as one of the Kardashians yelled at another one on the show she was watching. It was a guilty pleasure of hers, she knew that she’d get judged for watching it as it was the popcorn of the entertainment industry, light and easy to consume but offers little else. But given the kind of stress she dealt with on a weekly basis she earned the right to some mindless entertainment. 

But only a second later a high pitched beeping filled the RV, even managing to be louder than the frustrated sobs of the rich coming from her laptop. She groaned and closed the laptop. The group somehow got in trouble bad enough that they needed reinforcements, and considering how capable they were that was real bad news.

She pulled out her box of stuff from one of the cupboards. Storage in the RV was a little jacky but it worked, it just was all a tight fit thanks to how much gear everyone, even including Eddie who didn’t have an alter ego to store a coutume for, had. She pulled on her costume and stuffed the civilian clothing she had been wearing into the box so that it concealed the Keeping up with the Kardashians box set that she owned. She was pretty sure if Rose or Jason found it she would either die or be forced to kill them.

So first thing first was to figure out what was wrong. None of Eddie’s gear was set up to spy on the casino as he was planning to set up what he needed inside so that was a bust. Her next best option was to check the Los Vegas police twitter. And low and behold that actually had what she needed on it. Unfortunately it turned out that there was a freaking active bomb situation going on at the casino. She face palmed. Only this freaking team would end up at a casino the day it happened to also get held up at bomb point.

She got out of the RV and started towards the casino by hotel and casino rooftop. She had to both be figuring out her game plan while also being careful not to get spotted. Cause if the swat team saw an unidentified figure on a roof she’d so be getting shot at, and a bullet was the last thing she needed added to her list of worries. Instead it needed to be focused on a way in, any normal entrance would be have swat and the police crowded at it. So her best bet was to get up on the roof and hope there’d be an access door, because if there wasn’t she’d have to blow part of the roof open and nobody would want that. 

Half way through the swing over to the casino’s roof she narrowed her eyes. There was already two figures up on it. One standing tall with her hands on her hips and the other crouched down seemly thinking. Red Arrow didn’t really want to be stopping to chat or fight if she could avoid it but it was far too late to be changing her course. So she just took a breath and braced herself.

The landing was fine, though it took the other off guard as she heard a yelp and a girl say. “What the?!”

Red Arrow straightened herself out and stood in front of them. The girl looked a little older than her, probably in her late teens, with black hair and really pale skin. And a lot of black clothes, so obviously some sort of emo. The other one looked like he was dressed as a… something? With a white mask that had a red-ish ginger wig reminiscent of a raggedy Annies hair.

The girl crossed her arms and gave Red Arrow a look. “Who on earth are you suppose to be?”

“Red Arrow, I’m here to get my friends out and hopefully put a stop to this whole active bomb problem. You two?” 

The guy stood up and Red Arrow had to admit that she was a little creeped out by how he moved, it was just a little too flexible and went straight into uncanny valley. “I’m Ragdoll and we happen to be doing similar. Though we’re also going to beat up my sister.”

Red Arrow raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“We’re going to beat up my sister! Did you need me to say it louder? Because I can.” It seemed like a genuine question from him.

She shook her head. “I think I’m good.”

“I love her but considering she’s apparently threatening to blow up everyone I think some discipline is needed, and there’s no one else to do it!”

“I’m Black Alice, hi.” She waved a little, not even batting an eye at Ragdoll’s behavior.

“Wait… your sister is behind this?” Red Arrow knew how shitty family could be at times, hell that was basically the reason she was with the Outlaws, but yikes.

Ragdoll nodded. “Yup, she went and became a super scary mob boss meanwhile I got a costume and joined a bunch of weirdos in doing merc work! So I guess crime sort of runs in the family.”

Black Alice turned her head to him. “Wasn’t your dad also a super criminal?”

“Oh yeah he was! I actually got his name! Anyways, my sister has this weird habit of trying to kill my friends and I’ve got to admit, it’s starting to get on my nerves. We already have enough trouble staying alive as it is! We don’t need her making harder now do we?”

Red Arrow ignored him and glanced around the roof. Damn it there wasn’t an access door. She looked back over at Black Alice. “Do you have anything quieter than a small explosion that could get us in?”

A smirk spread across her face as she cracked her knuckles. “Hell yeah i do.” A moment passes and then she’s dressed up like a super Red Arrow has never seen… which was definitely not what she was expecting. With a wave of Black Alice’s hand a shadowy portal appeared. “Come on, let’s get this show rolling.” She beckon the two behind her to follow than went through the portal.

Shit like this didn’t happen in Star City, it was usually just a mob boss or some sort of assassin. Not random magic users and whatever the hell Ragdoll was supposed to be. But she guessed that this sort of stuff was kinda what she signed up for wasn’t it. She followed Black Alice and Ragdoll who had went in while she was thinking to herself.

The three found themselves in a dimly lit backroom used for private games of cards judging from the tables in the room. It was well decorated with paintings on the wall and a few flower vases scattered around the room. But most importantly it was empty, no civilians to freak out and give away their location and none of Ragdoll’s sisters goons. She probably should ask what on earth the name of the person she’s gonna fight is.

“Okay to real quick questions, what’s the name of the bad guy? And how good are you guys at sleath?”

Ragdoll held up two fingers. “Her name is Alex but don’t call her that or she’ll get really really mad, actually also try to avoid looking at her, she doesn’t like people looking at her. Anyways you can call her Junior since that’s the name she keeps telling people to call her.” He put one of his fingers down. “And we’re not awful at stealth, it’s just that every time we try to be stealthy we end up in a trap or come across something way too important or notable to stay all sneaky.”

Black Alice crossed her arms. “Hate to say it but your probably the best one in the room for that, the Six are a little more guns a blazing than sneaky. So feel free to give a couple clues of what to do to avoid getting shot.”

Red Arrow nodded and then creep to the door, keeping her hand up to let the other two know to just stay put. She had to lower her hand to crack the door open but thankfully they seemed to have gotten the idea. Outside on the casino floor was a bunch of mob goons rounding up the patronage at gunpoint and yelling at them to not move and comply and that they’d all be fine if they did that. Of course they were leaving out the bomb threat, that or they had no idea themselves, with supervillains a person never really could tell how much the goons were in on. Scanning the crowd her eyes didn’t land on anyone noteworthy, no sign of anyone strange enough to be part of the Six and no sign of her friends. But in the back was a doorway leading presumably to a hallway. And it was the most heavily guarded of the doors other than the front ones so it seemed like a pretty safe bet that to get to their teams and to Junior they’d need to get through those doors.

She closed the door and in a whisper told the other two. “Okay so we’ve got a bunch of goons, scared civilians and heavily guarded door that I’d bet we need to go through to find what we’re looking for. Anyone got any ideas?”

Ragdoll raised his hand. “We could run through the room really fast and get through before they process what we’re doing!”

Red Arrow shook her head. “We’re not doing that, next.”

“Using Nightshade’s powers I can flood the room with darkness and then you can, at least I hope you can, silently take out the guards at the door we need to get through. The civilians yelling should keep them from figuring out who got taken down.”

A small smile spread across Red Arrow’s face. “Now that sounds doable.”

“I still like my idea.” Ragdoll muttered to himself.

A few moments later after hashing out the exact plan Black Alice and Red Arrow were right at the door with Ragdoll not far behind them. Red Arrow opened the door just enough that she could aim at the three guards at the door they were heading for. She drew three arrows and in very rapid succession shot them at the guards. And right as the last one left the bow all light from the room was gone and the yelling and shouting started. Red Arrow just had to hope that all the arrows landed as there was no way to tell and if they didn’t things would be getting real messy real quick.

Red Arrow shot another arrow, though this one had a line attached instead of sleeping gas, aimed at where she knew the wall above the door was. She then suck the other end in the wall above the door they were just exiting. Black Alice meanwhile just grabbed Ragdoll and was going to fly over the crowd.

Red Arrow pulled herself up on the line and then started to scramble across. If she took too long it’d be risky but falling was an absolute no. She could hear the goons yelling at each other and the civilians continue to freak out. And at one point mid way across she knew that she felt the barrel of a gun brush against her hood which due to the way she was on the line was hanging down. She knew that if the goon took a shot in this moment she’d be done for with no chance to even fight back. But thankfully he hadn’t noticed and the gun moved. But she couldn’t let go of her breath yet. As she got closer and closer to the door her nerves started to get the better of her, if she messed this up there’d be consequences. But then she felt her hand brush up against the wall and under her she didn’t hear goons yelling or even talking, she could just faintly hear one snore. That’s when she let herself breath and drop down to the ground.

She felt around for the door handle and then opened it just enough for her to get through. And after that minute of darkness the light in the hallway felt blinding. Ragdoll and Black Alice seemed to also have that feeling since Alice was squinting and Ragdoll had a hand on his forehead to give his eyes some shade. 

Red Arrow jammed an arrow through the door handles and then started down the hallway quickly. There were a few doors on the walls but all were labeled staff only so wouldn’t work for any sort of dramatic chat or similar. “Once we’re at the door at the end of the hall Black Alice feel free to drop the shadows on the casino floor, by then they’ll have started checking doors and the jig will be up.”

“Okay sure. Do you have a plan for when go in or are we doing this Secret Six style?”

She thought for a moment. “My plan is to get the detonator away from whoever has it and not die.”

“Great Plan!” Black Alice snarked.

“Thanks!” Red Arrow snarked back. 

She didn't like this but there wasn’t really another angle of attack, if it wasn’t for swat she would have at least liked to enter through a window but that wasn’t possible.

“Actually do blow the door down as startlingly as you can.” At least some element of surprise would do them some good.

“Oh I can do a lot more than just that.” The smile on her lips made Red Arrow worry just ever so slightly but like a lot of things that day there was nothing to do about it.

And like that they were in front of white double doors. From behind them tense conversation was on going. It didn’t sound like Rose, Jason, or Eddie were speaking though, so she just had to hope they’d be behind the door.

Black Alice walked up to the door and in an instinct she was in a different costume. And while Red Arrow wasn’t very familiar with the magic community almost everyone knew what Etrigan’s costume looked like. She spat out some fire and like that she had a sword in hand. “Let’s kick some ass!” With her free hand she blasted the door down with hellfire.

She and Ragdoll charged in, Black Alice quickly going after a strange looking… someone? Probably Junior since she was the only person in the room in a weird outfit. Meanwhile Ragdoll was unhandcuffing his teammates and the three people standing next to his team, the Outlaws! Emiko turned her focus to the goons and started to deal with them, it was like child’s play for her. The Six didn’t seem to be having such a good time with Junior however, freaking Bane seemed to be having a hard time keeping up with her strength. Which it weren't for the fact that she was in a fight would have given her pause, but in a fight pause wasn’t allowed.

Jason seemed to be trying to help them with that problem meanwhile Rose was dealing with some of the other goons and Eddie also was helping, and while he clearly didn’t have the same amount of hand to hand training that she, Rose, or Jason had, he wasn’t half bad and did manage to get at least one goon down. 

For a few moments she wasn’t paying attention to the fight with Junior and instead focused on the last of the goons. But then she heard Jason shout from over at the window that overlooked the Las Vegas strip. “Hey Junior!” He held up a detonator in his hand, a smug smile on his face. “Bet you want this don’t you?”

“Give it back!” She shouted back.

“Come and get it.” 

Junior lunged at him and in the short few moments before he surely would have been killed he shot the window using a small pistol he had gotten through security and jumped out the window. Junior too far to change directory went right out the window after him. 

Emiko, Rose, and Eddie all stared wide eyed at the window, all unsure if what they just saw happen just happened. They then saw just a moment later the blur of a grappling line go up and presumably hook onto the roof. A few too many moments later they saw the top of Jason’s head.

The three rushed over meanwhile the Six nervously approached clearly trying to see what happened to Junior. Rose and Eddie pulled Jason back in through the window, he was breathing heavily and had some sweat running down his face.

“You okay?” Eddie asked.

He breathlessly nodded.

Emiko got pushed to the side by Ragdoll who despite the mask, looked clearly angered. “Where is she?!”

“What?” Jason flatly asked.

“We looked down and there was no sight of Alex! Not on the rope or as a puddle of gore, so where is she?!”

Jason shrugged. “Last I knew I dropped her down to the ground safely as I could, if she ain’t there then she’s already scurried off.”

Ragdoll glared at him. “If you did anything to her that you aren’t mentioning I will find you and it will be very unpleasant. Very very unpleasant.” He then marched off and slumped down leaning on the wall, Black Alice sat down next to him and they begun to chat about god knows what.

The Outlaws started to wander away from the Six. “So, are you three okay?” Emiko asked.

“Ehh, about as good as we can be considering we just got roped into some feud between the Secret Six and whatever Junior was.” Rose replied.

“I had a gun pressed up against my head! I am not okay!” Eddie said.

Jason patted him firmly on the back. “The first time is always scary.”

“First time?”

Both Jason and Rose chuckled, Emiko was sure both of them had that happen to them way more than just once, hell Emiko had it happen a couple times already. 

“So are we going to pick some food and head back to the RV?” Emiko asked.

“That sounds like a great plan.” Rose replied.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays everybody! This one got a little long but we are starting to really get into the meat of the story so there's a lot of ground to cover.

So maybe he was a few minutes away from accidentally falling asleep. Who could blame him though? Night owl didn’t even begin to describe the sleep schedule he had thanks to being a hero from Gotham. And while the loft area could never beat the freshly made bed he once had in Wayne manor it did manage to beat out the bed he had at home, he never really bothered to invest in his living situation and he was starting to realize that once he got unbanned from Gotham he should do that. That was if got which he’d say the chances were good that at some point Bruce would either realize that he had told the truth and Grant had just fallen and wasn’t pushed, or would have some crisis happen that would make him forget long enough what he was mad at Jason for that Jason could get back in the city.

Fuck his thoughts always turned to the slightly disheartening didn’t they? He started to twirl his hair and focus on the music Eddie had playing on the radio up at the front of the RV. It was some rap-ish indie stuff that wasn’t really his taste but was bad by any means, unlike a couple of the movies Eddie liked. He could defend them all day about how there was a deeper meaning or the camera work was the first of its kind, there were just some movies that wouldn’t click with him however hard Eddie had tried to make them click.

He could also vaguely hear Rose and Emiko talking about something, those two seemed to be getting along pretty well. Which probably was a good thing for the kid, she’d need somebody she felt comfortable casually chatting with and Rose was the second least fucked up, Eddie being the absolute least fucked up considering he never has known an assassin on a personal level or had a mental break down so bad it put people at risk. 

He rolled over on the bed, he knew he wasn’t suppose to be up there when the RV was moving but when did he start giving a fuck about that sort of thing? Besides they were about five minutes off from being at parking lot to refill the water tank. 

Or maybe that five minute thing applied five minutes ago as he could feel the RV come to a stop and hear the engine come off. The faults in spacing off he supposed.

“We’re here! You guys feel free to stretch your legs while I deal wit the water!”

All four of them filed out of the RV, clearly sick of being cooped up in it. At least in the apartments he was sure all of them were used to a person could go out on a walk or something, in the RV a person could maybe go down the aisle a couple times before you could feel everyone's weird glances at them.

“Soo, what were you day dreaming about up in the loft?” Rose asked from behind him, he paused his walking letting her past. She had a coy smile and her hands in her pockets.

“Oh you know, the usual stuff. A spa day in fiji, eating a cloud, what it’d be like to hunt a clown for sport.” He chuckled.

She stifled her laughter, even covering her mouth a little bit. 

“I’d kill for a spa day in fiji.” Emiko piped in.

“I like the cloud thing!” Eddie yelled over even though if he could hear them clearly enough to know what they were talking about they’d be able to hear what he was saying.

“I think my favorite is obvi-” Jason got interrupted by his phone buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out, “Give me a minute, I need to take this.”

Rose offered a small nod of acknowledgement as he walked away from them. Dick was calling him and no matter what they were about to have a chat about he didn’t want his team hearing it. He was trying to avoid looking like… well he wasn’t sure how that sentence was supposed to finish but he knew he didn’t want them to think poorly of him in any way.

Once he was sure he was out of their earshot he answered the phone.

“Hey Dick, what’s up? Is this about what happened in Gotham?”

“I would have called sooner if I had anything to say about that…” There was a tone of disappointment in his voice as he said it.

Jason crossed his free arm over his chest. “Please tell me you don’t think that I did it too. Cause I am gonna start pulling my hair out if too many people think that I did.”

“Stuff’s unclear right now, it’s your word against Bruce’s and frankly, both of you have reasons to misinterpret or lie about what happened.”

So at least he’d acknowledge there was a possibility that he didn’t do it and that Bruce had a  _ bit  _ of a bias. 

“But again, this isn’t about that. I actually need your help.”

“Wait what?” Jason blinked a couple times. “Why?”

“I’ve got someone who’s ran off into hiding in the Gotham underground and I thought you’d have the best connections to find her.”

If he was using a landline and not his cellphone he’d be twiling the cord about now. “Dick, quick question, are you asking me to go into Gotham? The city Bruce banned me from only a couple weeks ago? That Gotham city?”

Dick sighed and Jason was sure he was pinching the bridge of his nose, “Yup, that Gotham city.” He sounded so resigned.

“Have you cleared this with Bruce or is the golden boy going behind his back?” Jason teased.

Dick groaned on the other end, the nose pinching surly getting more intense. “I haven’t exactly talked with Bruce about this-”

“Cause you know he’d say no?”

“... I mean kinda, yeah. But this isn’t really something I can go do or get someone else to do so this is just gonna have to be done on the down low.”

A moment passed before Jason abruptly said. “Got‘cha. So who am I looking for?”

“Duela Dent-”

“The girl that runs around calling herself the Joker’s Daughter? You really think it’s a good idea to get  _ me  _ to look for  _ her _ ?”

“I… Look I know that must sound weird. But have you ever met her?”

“Not really… Why? Is she actually good at being a clown instead of just being a massive bastard?” 

“No- I mean she’s is not awful at being a clown but that wasn’t what I meant at all. Really long story that she’s rambled off at least three times short, she’s from a different universe where stuff is weird and ‘the Joker’ isn’t a mass murderer or anything.”

“You know, sometimes I forget how fucking weird all of our lives are. Because you just told me to go track down an alternate universe clown in a city where my dad banished me from like he was some sort of medieval baron.”

Dick slightly chuckled. “Ok, I’ll admit that without all the context that does sound really strange.” He paused for a moment, and his tone went back to business mode. “So can you do it?”

Jason glanced over at his team and then looked back down at the asphalt. “Course I can, when haven’t I been able to do something I’ve set my mind too?” He paused for a moment. “Actually don’t answer that question. So what should I do once I find her?”

“Try and get her to come back to the Titans, she’s been staying with us and this is probably where she’ll be safest. If you can’t convince her, put a tracker on her and give me the signal for it so I track her down and talk with her.”

“Totally can do that, one last question, what on earth should I have my team do while I’m busy with this? Cause I can’t really imagine who they could help with the tracking down Duela thing so I’m wondering if bringing them into the city is the right option.”

“Wait you have a team?!”

“Oh yeah… I guess I haven’t mentioned that to any of you guys… Yeah I’m running a team with a couple friends, you remember Eddie? Used to be Kid Devil?”

“He was on Tim’s Teen Titans team, course I remember him.”

“Great, well he’s one of the people that are here. Then we’ve also got Rose Wilson, who I know you know since she told me about that time all the Teen Titans ended up with Nightwing shirts, she even showed me the picture.”

“She still has that?”

“Yup, real cute pic by the way.” He teased. “And then we’ve also got Red Arrow with us. Don’t worry we are all trying to be good influences.”

He could practically hear Dick raise his eyebrow. “You better be.”

“Course we are, hell we didn’t let her come with us into casino. Though she did end up having to come in to help us with a slight problem we had.”

“... Wait were you guys at that casino that had a bomb threat?”

“We handled it. And hey, that probably one of the less dangerous things a superhero team can do together.”

“Just, be careful please.”

“Don’t worry. I’m gonna let anything happen to my team, they’ll all be fine.”

“Okay. So how long do you think it’ll take you to find Duela?”

“Wellll we’re gonna have to spend the rest of the day driving to Gotham and then I’ll need to get in touch with some people… Probably two weeks tops and that’s if a bunch of stuff comes up and Bruce is being paranoid that I’m in the city.”

“That will work. Thanks.”

“Your welcome. I gotta get going and discuss with my team what we’ll be up to.”

“Bye.”

“Later Dick.”

He hung up and wandered back over to the others, Emiko was showing Rose something on her phone and Eddie was fiddling with the water tank hook up. He waved and caught their attention.

“We’ve got a mission guys!” He stopped in front of Rose and Emiko. Both of their eyes lit up and he could see out of the corner of his eye Eddie perk up to listen.

Rose put a hand on her hip and tilted her head. “What is it?”

“We’re headed to Gotham-”

Emiko crossed her arms and him and gave him a  _ look _ . “Aren’t you banned from there?”

He half shrugged. “I mean yeah, I won’t deny it. But Nightwing needs me to go find a Titan that ran off into hiding and I wasn’t exactly about to say no to him.”

Eddie walked over to the three of them,a small frown on his face. “Which Titan?”

“Duela Dent, do you know her?”

He rubbed his neck. “I met her a couple of times while I was a part of the Teen Titans, she was actually pretty nice,” his glaze turned to Jason. “Not Joker like in the slightest.”

He gave a small laugh. “Thanks for making sure that was clear.”

“Got any idea why she’s hiding? She didn’t really ever seem the type.”

“Nightwing said that she’s… you know come to think of it he didn’t actually mention why on earth she’s hiding or what she’s hiding  _ from _ .”

Emiko crossed her arms and gave Jason a look, the type of look that a person gets when they don’t like something but won’t outright say it, just make it clear as day through other ways.. “Great, so we’re going somewhere you’re banned from for reasons we don’t know because you couldn’t say no to your brother?”

“I mean it’s also the right thing to do, sure it puts our…” She paused clearly trying to figure out what the chain of command in the team even was, cause they had yet to actually sit down and talk about it. “Jason at risk but that girl is also at risk and we don’t know her odds but I think we can figure out our own-” She turned her head to Jason with a small nod, “-can’t we?”

“Course we can.” He looked Emiko over, under the annoyance there were some signs of worry, she was slightly rubbing her arm and her eyes drifted down. “Why don’t you wanna go there? It’s not as bad as people make it out to be if that’s the concern.” He lightly chuckled hoping to defuse any tension before it started.

She looked off at the empty road and shrugged. “It just seems like a lot of effort to do for someone who could go do it himself or get someone who isn’t banned from the city to go do it.”

“He said I was the best choice for the job and I’m going to trust him on this one. If he was wrong then will be the time to get testy with him.” 

Jason after a moment clapped his hands together. “Let’s get done what we were here to do then get this show rolling, I wanna be in Gotham as soon as possible so we can all get this over with as soon as possible.”

* * *

She and Emiko were sitting across from each other at the folding table. Rose painting her nails a shade of black and Emiko checking her phone. She caught on earlier that something was bothering Emiko and it wasn’t what she had said it was. But how to bring it up in a way that wouldn’t be too sudden? She didn’t want to put her on the defense and getting put on the spot would also put her right there too.

But it did need to get brought up at some point, didn't it? One of the team having a problem going somewhere was important, but maybe having some sense of privacy was too. Dammit why couldn’t have life given her the experience to know what to do here? While it wasn’t a family like situation it was calling on the older sibling skills older siblings all seemed to have of knowing just how much to pry and how much to leave untouched. To be fair her own older sibling didn’t exactly have those skills from the start, he had been used to being the youngest till she showed up, so maybe it was something learned?

“Rose?” Emiko was looking up from her phone at her.

She jolted in her seat only to realize she had completely zoned out and there was now nail polish dripping onto the table. “Uh, yeah?” She weakly asked.

“Are you okay?” 

Rose start to screw the nail polish cap back in as she answered. “Could we talk about the real reason your unhappy about going to Gotham? Like I get it, maybe you don’t wanna dump it all out but I’m not gonna judge whatever reason it is, even if it is that myth that they get red skies at night, cause that myth is fucking spooky.”

Emiko giggled and had a smile that was trying to be contained on her face. “It’s not that! I just..” The smile faded. “Batman scares me.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “Batman scares you? He only beats up crim-”

She waved both her hands. “I should be more specific. I’m worried he’s gonna find out about the team and call Oliver.”

Rose stared at her for a few moments, Jesus Christ had this girl not talked with him about the team before leaving Star City with them?? “Why would that be bad?”

Emiko sighed. “I didn’t exactly tell him directly about the team, and I didn’t even mention to Roy the full member list, he only knew about you since you asked him. I don’t think any of them would be thrilled to find out I’m running around in a team with Red Hood.”

Jesus Christ she actually did that. The amount of internal swearing going on in Rose’s head would make a sailor blush because god this could land them in the shit. She thought she had been careful when recruiting Emiko to avoid this sort of problem but damn she should have trusted her gut when it struck her as strange Emiko had her talk to Roy of all people. What the hell was she supposed to do now?

“Emiko, you gotta talk to Oliver at some point. It’s not going to be because of Batman, we’re not gonna end up in that situation. But even without that you are gonna have to call him and tell him at some point, the sooner the better.”

Emiko lowed her phone down to her lap and looked at the table with a frown on her face. “Do I? I’m sixteen and allowed to go out on missions on my own, and he’s fine with me being on a team.”

Rose leaned back in her seat and gave a comforting smile. “Look I know how hard talks with family can be, but I can you already know why you gotta do it, you wouldn’t be avoiding it otherwise. Red Hood has a rep and if this gets to him by any mouth other than ours it’s going to sound like The Outlaws aren’t a superhero team but a rogue vigilante team that’s leading the heroic youth astray.” Damn saying that made her realize the thin wire the team really was on when it came to other heroes, it hadn’t really processed to her till then.

Emiko stayed quiet for a few moments and then said. “I hate that you’re right. I’ll do it once we’re in Gotham.”

Rose leaned forward and gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Atta girl.”

* * *

After four hours straight of driving he had dipped out to take a break and let Rose take a crack at the wheel. And man was his body happy for it, getting to stretch his legs for a moment as he went over to the ladder for the loft bed and climb up, not having to focus on what was right in front of his face and instead being able to let autopilot get him there.

Jason was already on the bed even though he knew he shouldn’t be, it wasn’t exactly safe. But Eddie really didn’t have a place to judge considering he was also there to lie down. He had a small smile on his face as he noticed Eddie and then offered a small wave, keeping one hand on the book he was reading.

“Letting Rose take a turn?”

Eddie crawled over next to him and flopped down on the blankets. “I mean I’m not letting the girl that just got her driver’s licence this year drive the RV now am I?”

He shrugged. “Could be good for practice.”

“Yeah on a drive where we’re trying to be fast on a freeway. That kinda sounds like dropping her in the deep end without even giving her a how to swim manual beforehand.”

Jason chuckled and then flipped a page of his book. From the word choice Eddie could make out it was some classic book Eddie probably hadn’t read, it didn’t seem familiar at the least. 

“God he’s still a nerd?!” Danny pointed at the book. “I thought he’d die out of it.”

Eddie frowned and rolled his eyes. He was happy that Danny wasn’t just… gone from his life completely but he had formed the nasty habit of saying shit like that. Shit he knew would upset Eddie. It was all small things but after a few mouths of it they started to seem bigger.

“Could you not.” He mouthed at Danny.

Danny chuckled and said. “Not what?”

“Say shit like that!” He mouthed. “You know I’m touchy about that, hell you were too before…”

“Before I died out of it?” He had such a shit eating grin on his face like he had just made the best pun ever.

Eddie just turned away from him and pressed his face into the bed and felt around for a pillow to hug.Frankly if he’d try to confront it anymore than he already had his anger would get the best of him, hell he already wanted to throw a pillow at him. 

“Eddie? Eddie..? You gotta admit you walked right into that one.”

Without even thinking his hand finally found a pillow and threw it at where Danny was, it passed right through him and landed on the floor of the RV. Jason turned around looking baffled.

“What was that for? Also-” He looked down at the foot of the bed. “Nice aim,” He lightly chuckled.

“I…” Eddie sat up with a sigh. “I just frustrated myself and wasn’t thinking, so I threw a pillow thinking it might make me feel better forgetting that you were right there.” The lies tasted dirty but the truth would sound incredible, as in, not credible, doubtful, and inspiring of questions about the state of his mental health.

Jason moved his bookmark to the page he was on and then closed his book and put it aside, his focus shifting over to Eddie. “I get that, at least two of my safe houses have broken mirrors for similar reasons.” He shrugged. “Considering that all that got hurt was a pillow’s feelings I’d say you’ve got nothing to feel bad about.”

“I guess..”

Jason scooted closer to Eddie and one of his hands ended up on Eddie’s lap, not that he minded in the slightest. “So what’d you get frustrated over?”

Eddie glanced at Danny who was now investigating the book Jason had been reading. “Old friendships…”

Jason nervously laughed. “Not about me right? Cause there’s not a lot of opinions in that category.”

Eddie quickly looked over at Jason who while the way he had said that made it sound like a joke Eddie could see just a tiny bit of truth in the question. Eddie leaned in for a half hug. “Course not!”

Jason did give him the half hug that he had leaned in for. “Okay good, cause there ain’t much use in comfort coming from the annoyance.”

Eddie leaned back into his own personal space and gave a smile. “I don’t need comforting, Jay. I just needed to get it out and I think that pillow throwing did the trick.”

Jason laid down on the bed space next to Eddie. “Well then I’m glad you got it out. Even if the poor pillow did have to suffer a little for it.”

Eddie laid down facing Jason, it still sometimes surprised him to see bright green eyes looking back at him instead of the warm brown eyes Jason had when they were younger. 

“Hey can I actually ask you something Jay?”

“Long as it isn’t what made me punch mirrors in my safe houses, cause frankly I don’t even remember.”

“Yeah it isn’t that,” Eddie paused for a moment, he had already gone that far he needed to ask. “Why are we doing this?”

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Why ask? I thought Rose explained it pretty well to Emiko back at the parking lot?”

He half shrugged. “Those were Rose’s reasons, not yours.” He started rubbing at the side of his neck, his eyes drifting to the pillows more than Jason. “And this seems a little  _ weird  _ for you to agree to. I mean you’re throwing us into a city you got banned from to help someone you’d normally tell to go do this sort of thing himself. You don’t seem like you have a plan even!”

Jason stayed quiet for a moment, Eddie could tell he was pondering his own answer. He then sighed and pushed some of his hair away from his face. “You know me too well for your own good, you know that right?”

Eddie chuckled and stroked Jason’s hair, a small smile on his face. “I know you just the right amount I think.”

“Fuck that sounds so cheesy, did you steal that from a romcom?”

Eddie thought for a second then shook his head. “Not knowingly at least but you never know. So about my question?”

“I… It’s probably best if I’ve got at least someone in the family with a positive take on me right now, and right now Dick seems neutral, and willing to see that Bruce has a bias. So he’d probably be my best bet as an advocate once letting back into Gotham is on the table.”

“So you’re trying to make him happy with you?”

“Pfft, no I mean…” Jason paused for a moment and face palmed. “Fuck that’s exactly what I’m doing. But ya know, not doing that would bite in the ass big time so what the fuck else to do I guess!?”

Eddie patted him on the shoulder. “Sometimes I forget how rough the batfamily can get, then I talk with you or Tim and remember.”

Jason shrugged. “Eh, I mean everyone's a bit of an asshole, and Bruce is strict as fuck but I wouldn’t say it’s rough. Shit’s rougher without ‘em than with ‘em, ya know?”

Eddie nodded. He guessed he understood, but also on another level he probably wasn’t ever going to. The batfamily were a mysterious bunch, and how on earth they worked together Eddie had no fucking clue considering all the shitty parts of it he had overheard about.

Settling on trying to not think about any of that too hard he crawled closer to Jason, flopped one of his arms down onto Jason and closed his eyes to rest for once it’d be his turn to drive again on the two day long road trip they were on.

* * *

…

……

………

He was staring down a hole that seemed to have no bottom, but still the man at the bottom was shoveling up more and more dirt. The rain hit him hard, he had brought no umbrella and in terms of outerwear he just had an oversized hoodie. He twiddled his thumbs together nervously glancing around the almost pitch black yard around them, nearly convinced that at any moment from out of the dark would come trouble.

He could feel his heart pounding, why on earth did he ever agree to help with this?! There were some tears welling up in his eyes and he was probably a moment away from sobbing from terror and regret.

But then the other man climbed out of the hole, with his red glowing eyes and while he could not see the mans face past the mask he could tell there was a frown on it. He did not dare look down from the man’s face at what was in his arms, he dare not put himself through that horror.

The other man roughly, with frustration clear in his voice said. “Don’t you dare start crying on me or so help me God.”

He furiously rubbed at his eyes trying to get himself under control-

But then his eyes opened and he was breathing heavily, lying down on his soft warm bed in the room he set up for himself in Shadowcrest for when he was in Gotham. His phone was ringing next to him on the bedside table. 

Still groggy and a little shaken from his dream he pulled himself up and leaned against the backboard of his bed and then grabbed his phone. Huh, it was Eddie, what on earth could he want at this hour?


End file.
